The American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL) and a coalition of nursing and hospital organizations are using National Nurses Week 2026 to renew pressure on Congress to pass the Save Healthcare Workers Act (H.R. 3178, 119th Congress). The bill would make it a federal crime to assault or intimidate hospital personnel — a meaningful escalation from state-level statutes that advocates say haven't deterred the ongoing violence.

What H.R. 3178 Would Actually Do

The bill was introduced by Representatives Madeline Dean (D-PA) and Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA) in May 2025, drawing bipartisan co-sponsorship in the 119th Congress. Its core provisions:

  • Federal felony classification for assaulting a healthcare worker — up to 10 years in federal prison
  • Enhanced penalties for attacks involving a deadly or dangerous weapon, or attacks that result in bodily injury — up to 20 years
  • Further escalation for violent acts committed during emergency declarations
  • Federal grant funding for violence prevention programs, security technology, and de-escalation training at healthcare facilities

The bill has received endorsements from the American Hospital Association, the Emergency Nurses Association, and the American Nurses Association. It is specifically designed to establish a federal floor — meaning the protections would apply regardless of whether the state where an attack occurs has its own healthcare worker protection law.

The Violence Data Driving the Push

The legislation didn't emerge from nowhere. The numbers have been building for years and 2026's Nurses Week reports made them unavoidable:

  • NNU's 2026 Nurses Week survey: 27% of nurses were physically assaulted on the job in 2025 — most did not report it formally
  • Massachusetts Nurses Association: 69% of nurses experienced assault over a two-year period at MNA-represented hospitals
  • Hundreds of nurses rallied at the Massachusetts State House on May 5, 2026 demanding both violence legislation and staffing protections
  • 25+ states are now moving healthcare workplace violence bills in 2026 at the state level

Emergency departments and psychiatric units carry the highest assault rates, but the data shows violence is not confined to those settings. Med-surg nurses, SNF nurses, and home health nurses all report physical assault in workforce surveys at rates most outside healthcare find shocking.

Why Federal Law Matters When States Already Have Statutes

Forty-plus states have some form of law that classifies assaulting a healthcare worker as a specific criminal offense. The problem is enforcement. State statutes rarely result in prosecution — facilities are reluctant to press charges because it disrupts operations, nurses are discouraged from reporting because it generates paperwork and follow-up interviews, and prosecutors deprioritize assault cases that don't result in serious injury.

A federal statute changes the calculus in two ways. First, federal prosecutors have different prioritization dynamics than state DAs — they're more likely to treat a federal felony charge as a meaningful case even when the assault didn't result in hospitalization. Second, a federal law creates a more consistent deterrent signal across states, regardless of how seriously individual jurisdictions enforce their own statutes.

It also creates a clearer legal basis for civil liability and institutional accountability in cases where facility policies contributed to the assault risk — understaffing, inadequate security, absent de-escalation protocols.

Where the Bill Stands

As of Nurses Week 2026, H.R. 3178 has not made it out of committee to a full House floor vote. That's been the pattern for federal healthcare worker protection legislation across multiple congressional sessions — broad bipartisan endorsement, meaningful co-sponsorship, committee death.

AONL and partner organizations are pushing for hearings and a markup during May, leveraging the public visibility of Nurses Week to generate constituent pressure. Whether that translates to floor time in the 119th Congress is genuinely uncertain. The 119th Congress runs through the end of 2026, which gives advocates roughly seven months of remaining legislative calendar.

The 2025 data on workplace violence published during Nurses Week 2026 is the strongest version of the evidence base the bill has had yet. If it doesn't generate committee action during this window, it will likely be reintroduced in the 120th Congress in 2027.

What Nurses Can Do Now — Independent of Legislation

Federal law passing in 2026 is uncertain. Your facility's internal violence prevention program is not.

  • Report every incident — including verbal threats and near-misses — through your facility's incident reporting system, even if you think it won't lead anywhere. Aggregate data is what drives policy and resource allocation
  • Verify your facility's policy on pressing charges. Many nurses don't know their employer has a blanket "no charges" policy until they're in the aftermath of an assault
  • Know your union contract language if you're in a union — many collective bargaining agreements include provisions on workplace violence response, light duty, and workers' comp coverage for assault-related injuries
  • Document: date, time, patient, witness names, exact description of what happened. Your recollection 72 hours later will be less precise than your documentation in the moment

The bill matters. But it won't protect you next Tuesday. Your facility's existing reporting infrastructure and your own documentation will.