United States Public Health Service Modernization Act of 2019

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 4870 To amend the Public Health Service Act with respect to the Public Health Service Corps. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OCTOBER 28, 2019 Mr. BURGESS (for himself and Ms. ESHOO) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce A BILL 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 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘United States Public 4 Health Service Modernization Act of 2019’’. 5 SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS. 6 (a) COMMISSIONED CORPS AND READY RESERVE 7 CORPS.—Section 203 of the Public Health Service Act (42 8 U.S.C. 204) is amended— 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:04 Nov 01, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4870.IH H4870 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 4870 IH (1) in subsection (a)(1), by striking ‘‘ a Ready 1 Reserve Corps for service in time of national emer- 2 gency’’ and inserting ‘‘, for service in time of a pub- 3 lic health or national emergency, a Ready Reserve 4 Corps’’; and 5 (2) in subsection (c)— 6 (A) in the heading, by striking ‘‘RE- 7 SEARCH’’ and inserting ‘‘RESERVE CORPS’’; 8 (B) in paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘during 9 public health or national emergencies’’ before 10 the period; 11 (C) in paragraph (2)— 12 (i) in the matter preceding subpara- 13 graph (A), by inserting ‘‘, consistent with 14 paragraph (1)’’ after ‘‘shall’’; 15 (ii) in subparagraph (C), by inserting 16 ‘‘during such emergencies’’ after ‘‘mem- 17 bers’’; and 18 (iii) in subparagraph (D), by inserting 19 ‘‘, consistent with subparagraph (C)’’ be- 20 fore the period; and 21 (D) by adding at the end the following: 22 ‘‘(3) STATUTORY REFERENCES TO RESERVE.— 23 A reference in any Federal statute, except in the 24 case of subsection (b), to the ‘Reserve Corps’ of the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:04 Nov 01, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4870.IH H4870 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 4870 IH Public Health Service or to the ‘reserve’ of the Pub- 1 lic Health Service shall be deemed to be a reference 2 to the Ready Reserve Corps.’’. 3 (b) DEPLOYMENT READINESS.—Section 4 203A(a)(1)(B) of the Public Health Service Act (42 5 U.S.C. 204a(a)(1)(B)) is amended by striking ‘‘Active Re- 6 serves’’ and inserting ‘‘Ready Reserve Corps’’. 7 (c) RETIREMENT OF COMMISSIONED OFFICERS.— 8 Section 211 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 9 212) is amended— 10 (1) by striking ‘‘(in the case of an officer in the 11 Reserve Corps)’’ each place it appears; 12 (2) by striking ‘‘the Service’’ each place it ap- 13 pears and inserting ‘‘the Regular Corps’’; 14 (3) in subsection (c)— 15 (A) in paragraph (1)— 16 (i) by striking ‘‘or an officer of the 17 Reserve Corps’’; and 18 (ii) by inserting ‘‘or under section 19 221(a)(19)’’ after ‘‘subsection (a)’’; and 20 (B) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘Regular 21 or Reserve Corps’’ and inserting ‘‘Regular 22 Corps or Ready Reserve Corps’’; and 23 (4) in subsection (f), by striking ‘‘the Regular 24 or Reserve Corps of’’. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:04 Nov 01, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4870.IH H4870 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 4870 IH (d) RIGHTS, PRIVILEGES, ETC. OF OFFICERS AND 1 SURVIVING BENEFICIARIES.—Section 221 of the Public 2 Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 213a) is amended— 3 (1) in subsection (a), by adding at the end the 4 following: 5 ‘‘(19) Chapter 1223, Retired Pay for Non-Reg- 6 ular Service. 7 ‘‘(20) Section 12601, Compensation: Reserve on 8 active duty accepting from any person. 9 ‘‘(21) Section 12684, Reserves: separation for 10 absence without authority or sentence to imprison- 11 ment.’’; and 12 (2) in subsection (b)— 13 (A) by striking ‘‘Secretary of Health, Edu- 14 cation, and Welfare or his designee’’ and insert- 15 ing ‘‘Secretary of Health and Human Services 16 or the designee of such secretary’’; 17 (B) by striking ‘‘(b) The authority vested’’ 18 and inserting the following: 19 ‘‘(b)(1) The authority vested’’; 20 (C) by striking ‘‘For purposes of’’ and in- 21 serting the following: 22 ‘‘(2) For purposes of’’; and 23 (D) by adding at the end the following: 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:04 Nov 01, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4870.IH H4870 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 4870 IH ‘‘(3) For purposes of paragraph (19) of subsection 1 (a), the terms ‘Military department’, ‘Secretary con- 2 cerned’, and ‘Armed forces’ in such title 10 shall be 3 deemed to include, respectively, the Department of Health 4 and Human Services, the Secretary of Health and Human 5 Services, and the Commissioned Corps.’’. 6 (e) TECHNICAL AMENDMENTS.—Title II of the Pub- 7 lic Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 202 et seq.) is amend- 8 ed— 9 (1) in sections 204, 207(c), and 208(a), by 10 striking ‘‘Regular or Reserve Corps’’ and inserting 11 ‘‘Regular Corps or Ready Reserve Corps’’; and 12 (2) in sections 205(c), 206(c), 210, and 219, 13 and in subsections (a), (b), and (d) of section 207, 14 by striking ‘‘Reserve Corps’’ each place it appears 15 and inserting ‘‘Ready Reserve Corps’’. 16 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:23 Nov 01, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H4870.IH H4870 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS