PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Referred to the Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in House · Mar 4, 2015
Doctors Helping Heroes Act of 2015
Amends the Immigration and Nationality Technical Corrections Act of 1994 to make permanent the J-1 visa waiver program (Conrad state 30/medical services in underserved areas).
Excludes from numerical immigration limitations alien physicians who have completed national interest waiver requirements by working in a health care shortage area (including alien physicians who completed such service before enactment of this Act and any of their spouses or children).
Showing the opening paragraphs of the official summary.
Sets forth specified employment protections and contract requirements for alien physicians working in underserved areas.
Increases the number of alien physicians that a state may be allocated from 30 to 35 per fiscal year in specified circumstances. Provides for additional increases or decreases based upon demand.
Provides up to three visa waivers per fiscal year per state for physicians in academic medical centers.
Permits dual intent for an alien coming to the United States to receive graduate medical education or training, or to take examinations required for graduate medical education or training.
Exempts from specified entry limitations H-1B nonimmigrant aliens seeking to enter the United States to pursue graduate medical education or training.
Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to authorize waiver of the two-year foreign residency requirement for an alien who has received graduate medical eduction or training in the United States and seeks to apply for an immigrant visa or permanent resident status if:
the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) determines that VA facilities are not capable of furnishing covered health services to eligible veterans because they lack the required personnel or cannot provide timely and reasonable access; and the head of the appropriate state agency determines that the alien will practice medicine in a Veterans Health Administration facility, the alien physician's work is in the public interest, and such waiver would not cause the number of waivers allotted for that state for that fiscal year to exceed five.
People & committees
Rep. Bera, Ami [D-CA-7] · D–CA
Legislative record
A procedural vote is different from passage. Passage in one chamber does not establish enactment. Explore the glossary.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security.
Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We currently store references to these documents.
Source last updated: Dec 6, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
AI Conversation Starters
Choose a perspective, copy a prompt, and paste it into your preferred AI. Each prompt includes the bill version and available official source links, and asks for counterarguments as well as supporting evidence.
Analyze H.R.1272 as objectively as possible. Explain its main provisions, who would be affected, possible benefits and harms, implementation, exceptions, and uncertainties. Present the strongest arguments for and against it, and identify evidence needed to assess its public impact.
Examine H.R.1272 through a progressive lens, focusing on fairness, access, economic inequality, and effects on vulnerable communities. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and distinguish stated goals from demonstrated outcomes.
Examine H.R.1272 through a conservative lens, focusing on fiscal responsibility, institutional stability, federalism, and the scope of government. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and any provisions that challenge this perspective.
Examine H.R.1272 through a civil-liberties and limited-government lens. Consider individual rights, privacy, voluntary choice, accountability, and government power. Explain tradeoffs, possible safeguards, and the strongest counterarguments without assuming the proposal is beneficial or harmful.