U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno is demanding Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther kill a partnership designed to bring Ghanaian nurses into Ohio hospitals, arguing the city should instead pour public money into training nurses already living here. Moreno delivered a letter to Ginther on Wednesday pressing the mayor to end the agreement and redirect any associated funds toward American workers.
The target of Moreno's letter is the Ghana-Columbus Nursing Partnership Programme, which was signed under the city's sister-city relationship with the Greater Accra Region, according to WSYX, though the station and other outlets have reported conflicting signing dates of September 14 and September 15, 2026. The agreement was signed at the Michael B. Coleman Government Center by Ginther, Ghana's Minister for Health Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, and Minister for Labour, Jobs and Employment Emmanuel Kwadwo Agyekum, per 3news.com. That outlet reports the deal builds on a sister-city relationship between Columbus and the Greater Accra Region dating back to 2015, and was facilitated through the combined efforts of Buckeye Africa Exchange, StrideHx and Columbus Sister Cities International.
Moreno, a Republican senator from Ohio, says the real problem is money: he claims Columbus and its City Council chose to direct $225,000 in public dollars toward recruiting nurses from overseas rather than investing in homegrown talent. Ginther's office pushed back hard on that characterization, telling Fox News that no City of Columbus funding is being used or committed for the initiative. The two sides are, in effect, describing two different sources of money and disagreeing on whether the connection between them is real.
Where the $225,000 Actually Came From
According to Fox News, the $225,000 figure Moreno cites was approved by Columbus City Council as a 2026 general fund grant to Greater Columbus Sister Cities International — not a line item tied specifically to nurse recruitment. The underlying ordinance says the money is meant to support business, government, cultural, educational and environmental exchanges among Columbus's ten sister cities, including Accra, Ghana, along with the organization's own staffing and administrative costs, the outlet reported.
Ginther's office further told the outlet the nursing initiative itself would remain employer-driven and standards-based, consistent with applicable U.S. laws and professional requirements, and does not constitute a city-funded hiring commitment or guarantee employment to any participating nurse. The mayor's office also framed the program as complementary rather than competitive, saying it is designed to complement existing domestic workforce development efforts, not replace them, and to help address the need for more nurses to meet nursing shortages.
Moreno's Broader Spending Allegation
Moreno didn't stop at the nursing deal. In his letter, he alleged that the $225,000 figure is only a fraction of roughly $8.3 million in taxpayer dollars he says Ginther has spent to benefit noncitizens and foreign governments since taking office as mayor, per Fox News. He argued Columbus should instead invest in expanding domestic classroom seats rather than importing talent from abroad, and said publicly subsidized foreign nursing recruitment would likely negatively impact American nurses' wages.
WSYX reports that Moreno pointed to nursing programs at Ohio State University, Capital University, Kent State University and the University of Cincinnati as examples of in-state capacity that could be expanded with public dollars instead. Ginther, for his part, has supported the partnership as a response to local hospital staffing shortages, while Moreno has criticized the arrangement as a misuse of municipal tax dollars — a dispute WSYX describes as the latest clash between state Republicans and municipal leaders over foreign labor exchanges and city spending priorities.
A Shortage Nobody Disputes
The underlying problem — too few nurses — isn't in dispute, even if the fix is. Hospitals nationwide say they're struggling to hire and retain nurses, a shortage experts attribute partly to retirements, burnout and stress, according to NBC4. One Mount Carmel nursing official told the station there will be more than enough nurses in central Ohio in ten years, though hospitals may still struggle to attract them in the meantime. Mount Carmel has launched a three-year initiative targeting staffing, mental health and technology to ease nurses' workload, while Ohio State's Wexner Medical Center is working to double admissions to its College of Nursing, per the same report.
Statehouse efforts to address the shortage have stalled, too. Ohio House Bill 535 would require hospitals to convene staffing committees with registered nurses making up the majority of members, while a companion bill, House Bill 521, targeted statewide nursing staffing ratios, according to The Ohio Newsroom. As of this summer, it was unlikely either bill would move before December, when all pending legislation either goes to Gov. Mike DeWine or dies, the outlet reported.
As for the Ghana partnership itself, supporters describe it as aimed at strengthening nursing education, workforce development and legal employment pathways for Ghanaian nurses in Ohio, according to 3news.com, with backers saying it would also support mutual skills transfer among medical professionals, institutional strengthening for healthcare facilities, and joint research and health innovations between the two countries. Whether that vision and Moreno's demand to end the agreement can be reconciled remains an open question, with Moreno pressing Ginther's office for a response on both the funding dispute and the program's future.
