Duckworth, Durbin Announce $300,000 in Funding for Jersey Community Hospital District

Duckworth, Durbin Announce $300,000 in Funding for Jersey Community Hospital District

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] - U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today announced $300,000 in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for Jersey Community Hospital District, specifically for rural emergency medical service training. The funding, which was created through Durbin's Supporting and Improving Rural EMS Needs (SIREN) Act, will go toward supporting EMS agencies in training and recruiting staff, conducting certification courses, purchasing equipment, and supporting community efforts to address substance use across rural America.

"Rural EMS providers are often the first to answer the call when a neighbor is in crisis, and they need the training, equipment and resources to be ready," Duckworth said. "This $300,000 federal investment will help Jerseyville strengthen its EMS workforce and better serve families across the region."

"Across Illinois, rural EMS agencies are the first on the scene to respond to community emergencies, the opioid crisis, or natural disasters. But EMTs must have the proper training, equipment, and steady funding to support their efforts to care for their community," Durbin said. "I worked hard to pass the SIREN Act to meet the needs of our rural EMS agencies, and I'm encouraged to see this funding make its way to Jerseyville to address the region's health needs."

Durbin's bipartisan SIREN Act was signed into law in 2018 as part of the Farm Bill. Since then, Durbin and U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) have led the appropriations effort to grow the program from $5 million annually to $13.5 million this year-resulting in a total of $40 million in grants nationwide across 42 states. The SIREN Act has resulted in new funds to rural EMS and fire agencies in Carbondale, Nauvoo, Amboy, Jerseyville, Mt. Carmel, Paris, and Gibson City, Illinois.

In September 2024, then-President Biden signed Durbin's bipartisan SIREN Reauthorization Act into law, extending funding for an additional five years for SIREN Act grants to rural fire and EMS agencies nationwide.

A decline in primary care and hospital service availability, health care workforce shortages, great distances between health care facilities, and low insurance reimbursement for transport and emergency treatment have all strained rural EMS agencies. At the same time, first responders are often the only health care providers in their area and face difficulties in both securing expensive equipment and with recruitment and retention of personnel. As a result, EMS agencies today are tasked with ever-greater responsibilities-preparing for natural and manmade disasters and bioterror threats, supporting the chronic and emergency care needs of an aging population, and responding on the front lines of the opioid epidemic.

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