He says it is an injustice to stop qualified physicians from serving communities that needs them

WASHINGTON : Rep. Frank Pallone, New Jersey Democrat, has criticized the United States Agriculture Department’s decision to discontinue helping foreign physicians obtain J-1 visa waivers to serve in rural communities.

Currently, foreign medical graduates are allowed to come to the U.S. on a J-1 visa for up to three years to train in accredited residency programs in rural, underserved parts of the country. In a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives, Pallone said the impetus behind accepting medical graduates from other countries and training them in American residency positions was to attract physicians to provide care to the medically underserved who live in rural areas where doctors trained in the U.S. do not normally want to practice.

Pallone, co-chairman of the House Democratic Health Care Task Force, said: “The law states that once the residency program is complete, the doctors are required to return to their country of origin for two years. However, the government has the authority to waive the requirements if it is in the United States’ interest to keep the physician here.”

The New Jersey Democrat said the U.S. Agriculture Department’s rural development branch was thrilled by the waiver because it provided a chance to retain medical trainees who would continue to serve in medically underserved communities in rural America. “Although it is clear that there is a lack of sufficient health care in rural America, and although it is clear that qualified physicians from abroad are willing to come to the U.S. to serve in these medically lacking communities, the federal government is now proposing an end to this very successful program,” Pallone said.

“Terminating this program and preventing qualified physicians from serving communities in America that lack sufficient health care does our country a great injustice,” claimed Pallone. “Since Sept. 11, national security concerns have taken hold and new, extensive background checks have been put in place,” Pallone continued. “The Agriculture Department claims that the extra money required to implement background checks on foreign medical graduates would be too burdensome and, therefore, the program must end,” Pallone said, adding that this was completely unjustified. There are about 80 applications for the waiver that are still pending. The program is slated to end after these applications have been processed.