Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, sent a letter Wednesday to Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther criticizing a memorandum of understanding the city signed with Ghana to create a joint nursing partnership, arguing that public money should go toward training American nurses rather than recruiting from overseas.
The Ghana-Columbus Nursing Partnership Programme was established in September through an agreement between Columbus and Ghanaian officials. According to the city, the program is meant to strengthen nursing education, expand workforce development, and build legal pathways for qualified Ghanaian nurses to work in Ohio’s health care system.
In his letter, Moreno took issue with $225,000 in public dollars tied to the effort. “Instead of investing in Ohio’s domestic workforce, you and the Columbus City Council chose to direct $225,000 in public dollars towards recruiting nurses from overseas,” he wrote. He went further, claiming the figure is “only a fraction of the approximately $8.3 million in taxpayer dollars you have lit on fire to benefit noncitizens and foreign governments since you were elected as mayor.”
That $225,000 was approved by Columbus City Council as part of a 2026 general fund grant to Greater Columbus Sister Cities International. According to the ordinance, the money is intended to support business, government, cultural, educational, and environmental exchanges with the city’s 10 sister cities — including Accra, Ghana — along with the organization’s staffing and administrative costs.
Moreno argued the nursing partnership risks undercutting American workers. “You were elected to serve the citizens of Columbus, not the citizens of Ghana,” he wrote. “Increasing publicly subsidized foreign nursing recruitment programs will likely negatively impact American nurses’ wages. These funds should be invested directly in Ohio nursing students and utilized to expand Ohio’s universities and colleges nursing programs’ capacity.”
He said he hopes Ginther will “reallocate public dollars toward expanding enrollment and training capacity at area colleges and universities, which would generate additional high-earning job opportunities for younger generations in our community and improve patient care.”
The agreement has drawn criticism from conservative commentators online. Attorney and GOP strategist Mehek Cooke asked on X, “Why aren’t our tax dollars funding nursing scholarships and careers for Ohioans instead?” adding, “Stop sidelining Americans with OUR money.” Policy analyst Parker Thayer pointed to the case of Roberta Achampong, a homecare nurse from Ghana who, he said, fled back to Ghana earlier this year after allegedly stealing millions from Medicaid and buying a house and a Porsche. “And now the mayor of Columbus wants more nurses from Ghana,” Thayer wrote.
At the September signing ceremony, Ginther described the arrangement differently, according to a press release from the government of Ghana. “Ghana has made significant investment in training nursing professionals who can migrate legally to enter a ready market in Columbus,” he said. Ghanaian officials at the event said the agreement goes beyond labor migration, pointing to mutual skills transfer between medical professionals, institutional strengthening for health care facilities, joint research collaboration, and broader improvements to patient outcomes as additional goals.
Fox News Digital reported reaching out to Ginther’s office for comment on Moreno’s letter.
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