House passes HB 262 to create generator grant program for rural hospitals in declared disaster counties

The House passed House Bill 262, a bill to create a grant program to help rural hospitals acquire and install backup generators, by voice vote and roll-call (yays 173, nays 0). The bill was described by its sponsor as a targeted response to power failures and equipment risks experienced during Hurricane Helene.

Sponsor Representative Angie Osteen said the current minimum generating capacity proved insufficient during the storm and cited hospitals that lost power and water for days. She described eligibility criteria on the floor: qualifying hospitals must be rural, located in one of the 41 counties included in the governor’s state of emergency after 07/01/2024, have fewer than 100 beds and be in counties with populations under 50,000.

Why it matters: Sponsor and colleagues said Hurricane Helene exposed gaps in backup power capacity at rural hospitals. Supporters argued that failures affected critical services — including ventilators, cardiac cath labs and cryogenically cooled equipment — and that replacing or upgrading systems is cost-prohibitive for many small hospitals.

Details on program scope and testimony: Representative Osteen said the current financial state of rural hospitals makes capital expenditures for increased generator capacity prohibitive and estimated there are potentially 30 qualifying rural hospitals. Members raised related issues on the floor: Representative Meeks asked whether the bill is limited to the disaster declared after 07/01/2024 or whether future disaster declarations would qualify hospitals under the same program; Osteen said she was open to further changes but the bill as drafted applied to the 41 counties named in that emergency declaration. Representative Hagen asked whether nursing homes were considered; Osteen said she had considered nursing homes but described hospitals as the first line of defense during crises because nursing-home residents are often transferred to hospitals.

Representative Mac Jackson spoke in favor and urged attention to community health centers as a future priority. Lawmakers also described equipment and clinical risks: one member noted that some hospitals almost lost cryogenically cooled equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars during outages.

The House adopted the committee substitute and passed the bill. The clerk recorded a final vote of 173 yeas and 0 nays.

Ending: Sponsors said the bill addresses immediate vulnerabilities for rural hospitals exposed by the recent hurricane and that additional work could come later to expand support to community health centers or long-term care settings.