Rural Residency Planning and Development Act of 2025

This legislation amends the Public Health Service Act to establish a new grant program, authorizing the Secretary to award grants to eligible entities. These grants are intended to create new rural residency programs or expand existing ones by adding new rural training sites. The programs must train residents in rural areas for over 50 percent of their residency, with pathways including general primary care, high-need specialties such as family medicine and psychiatry, and maternal health and obstetrics. The bill also establishes a Rural Residency Planning and Development Technical Assistance Program to support potential applicants and awardees of the main grant program. Eligible entities for these grants are broadly defined, encompassing public and private organizations, Tribal entities, rural hospitals, and graduate medical education consortiums. The legislation authorizes an appropriation of $12.7 million annually for fiscal years 2026 through 2030 to fund these initiatives, with the overarching goal of increasing the availability of physicians in underserved rural communities.