United States Public Health Service Modernization Act of 2019

IC 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 2629 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JANUARY 13, 2020 Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce AN ACT To amend the Public Health Service Act with respect to the Public Health Service Corps. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:06 Jan 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2629.RFH S2629 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 S 2629 RFH SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘United States Public 2 Health Service Modernization Act of 2019’’. 3 SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS. 4 (a) COMMISSIONED CORPS AND READY RESERVE 5 CORPS.—Section 203 of the Public Health Service Act (42 6 U.S.C. 204) is amended— 7 (1) in subsection (a)(1), by striking ‘‘a Ready 8 Reserve Corps for service in time of national emer- 9 gency’’ and inserting ‘‘, for service in time of a pub- 10 lic health or national emergency, a Ready Reserve 11 Corps’’; and 12 (2) in subsection (c)— 13 (A) in the heading, by striking ‘‘RE- 14 SEARCH’’ and inserting ‘‘RESERVE CORPS’’; 15 (B) in paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘during 16 public health or national emergencies’’ before 17 the period; 18 (C) in paragraph (2)— 19 (i) in the matter preceding subpara- 20 graph (A), by inserting ‘‘, consistent with 21 paragraph (1)’’ after ‘‘shall’’; 22 (ii) in subparagraph (C), by inserting 23 ‘‘during such emergencies’’ after ‘‘mem- 24 bers’’; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:06 Jan 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2629.RFH S2629 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 S 2629 RFH (iii) in subparagraph (D), by inserting 1 ‘‘, consistent with subparagraph (C)’’ be- 2 fore the period; and 3 (D) by adding at the end the following: 4 ‘‘(3) STATUTORY REFERENCES TO RESERVE.— 5 A reference in any Federal statute, except in the 6 case of subsection (b), to the ‘Reserve Corps’ of the 7 Public Health Service or to the ‘reserve’ of the Pub- 8 lic Health Service shall be deemed to be a reference 9 to the Ready Reserve Corps.’’. 10 (b) DEPLOYMENT READINESS.—Section 11 203A(a)(1)(B) of the Public Health Service Act (42 12 U.S.C. 204a(a)(1)(B)) is amended by striking ‘‘Active Re- 13 serves’’ and inserting ‘‘Ready Reserve Corps’’. 14 (c) RETIREMENT OF COMMISSIONED OFFICERS.— 15 Section 211 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 16 212) is amended— 17 (1) by striking ‘‘the Service’’ each place it ap- 18 pears and inserting ‘‘the Regular Corps’’; 19 (2) in subsection (a)(4), by striking ‘‘(in the 20 case of an officer in the Reserve Corps)’’; 21 (3) in subsection (c)— 22 (A) in paragraph (1)— 23 (i) by striking ‘‘or an officer of the 24 Reserve Corps’’; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:06 Jan 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2629.RFH S2629 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 S 2629 RFH (ii) by inserting ‘‘or under section 1 221(a)(19)’’ after ‘‘subsection (a)’’; and 2 (B) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘Regular 3 or Reserve Corps’’ and inserting ‘‘Regular 4 Corps or Ready Reserve Corps’’; and 5 (4) in subsection (f), by striking ‘‘the Regular 6 or Reserve Corps of’’. 7 (d) RIGHTS, PRIVILEGES, ETC. OF OFFICERS AND 8 SURVIVING BENEFICIARIES.—Section 221 of the Public 9 Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 213a) is amended— 10 (1) in subsection (a), by adding at the end the 11 following: 12 ‘‘(19) Chapter 1223, Retired Pay for Non-Reg- 13 ular Service. 14 ‘‘(20) Section 12601, Compensation: Reserve on 15 active duty accepting from any person. 16 ‘‘(21) Section 12684, Reserves: separation for 17 absence without authority or sentence to imprison- 18 ment.’’; and 19 (2) in subsection (b)— 20 (A) by striking ‘‘Secretary of Health, Edu- 21 cation, and Welfare or his designee’’ and insert- 22 ing ‘‘Secretary of Health and Human Services 23 or the designee of such secretary’’; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:06 Jan 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2629.RFH S2629 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 S 2629 RFH (B) by striking ‘‘(b) The authority vested’’ 1 and inserting the following: 2 ‘‘(b)(1) The authority vested’’; 3 (C) by striking ‘‘For purposes of’’ and in- 4 serting the following: 5 ‘‘(2) For purposes of’’; and 6 (D) by adding at the end the following: 7 ‘‘(3) For purposes of paragraph (19) of subsection 8 (a), the terms ‘Military department’, ‘Secretary con- 9 cerned’, and ‘Armed forces’ in such title 10 shall be 10 deemed to include, respectively, the Department of Health 11 and Human Services, the Secretary of Health and Human 12 Services, and the Commissioned Corps.’’. 13 (e) TECHNICAL AMENDMENTS.—Title II of the Pub- 14 lic Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 202 et seq.) is amend- 15 ed— 16 (1) in sections 204 and 207(c), by striking 17 ‘‘Regular or Reserve Corps’’ each place it appears 18 and inserting ‘‘Regular Corps or Ready Reserve 19 Corps’’; 20 (2) in section 208(a), by striking ‘‘Regular and 21 Reserve Corps’’ each place it appears and inserting 22 ‘‘Regular Corps and Ready Reserve Corps’’; and 23 (3) in section 205(c), 206(c), 210, and 219, 24 and in subsections (a), (b), and (d) of section 207, 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:06 Jan 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2629.RFH S2629 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 S 2629 RFH by striking ‘‘Reserve Corps’’ each place it appears 1 and inserting ‘‘Ready Reserve Corps’’. 2 Passed the Senate January 9, 2020. Attest: JULIE E. ADAMS, Secretary. VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:06 Jan 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2629.RFH S2629 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS