Health Empowerment Zone Act of 2005
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Health Empowerment Zone Act of 2005 - Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Director of the Office of Minority Health, to: (1) designate health empowerment zones and make grants in accordance with this Act; and (2) establish a health empowerment zone coordinating committee for each zone.
Authorizes the Secretary to designate a community as a health empowerment zone if a participating community partnership requests such designation and demonstrates that the community is a community of color experiencing disproportionate disparities in health status and health care.
Directs the Secretary to make grants to community partnerships to establish health empowerment zone programs to improve the health or environment of minority individuals and eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in health status and health care. Requires at least one such grant to be made to a health empowerment zone in a U.S. territory or possession. Gives preference in awarding grants to indigenous community entities with expertise in providing culturally appropriate and linguistically responsive services to communities of color.
Directs the Secretary, the Administrator of the Small Business Administration, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Education, the Secretary of Labor, and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to: (1) provide assistance for such programs; (2) identify programs that may be used to further the purposes of such zones; and (3) give priority in administering identified programs to a designated community if doing so would further the purposes of the empowerment program.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.
- Introduced in House Formatted Text PDF Formatted XML
Cite this page
U.S. Congress. (2026). H.R. 56: Health Empowerment Zone Act of 2005. 109th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/109-HR-56/
"H.R. 56: Health Empowerment Zone Act of 2005." 109th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/109-HR-56/.
H.R. 56, 109th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/109-HR-56/.
[H.R. 56: Health Empowerment Zone Act of 2005](https://openamerica.io/bill/109-HR-56/)