Emergency Medical Supplies Procurement Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 6719 To require the Federal Government to provide critical health care resources in response to the COVID–19 pandemic. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MAY 5, 2020 Mr. KHANNA introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com- mittee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and in addition to the Com- mittees on Financial Services, Energy and Commerce, and the Budget, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To require the Federal Government to provide critical health care resources in response to the COVID–19 pandemic. 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 ‘‘Emergency Medical 4 Supplies Procurement Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:12 May 16, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6719.IH H6719 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 6719 IH SEC. 2. FEDERAL PROVISION OF CRITICAL HEALTH CARE 1 RESOURCES. 2 (a) REQUIREMENT TO PROVIDE CRITICAL HEALTH 3 CARE RESOURCES.— 4 (1) IN GENERAL.—The President, acting 5 through the Administrator of the Federal Emer- 6 gency Management Agency, and in consultation with 7 the Secretary of Health and Human Services and 8 the head of any other relevant Federal agency, shall 9 fulfill, to the greatest extent possible and with due 10 urgency, according to need, all requests from States 11 for critical health care resources that are required to 12 support medical providers, treat patients, or promote 13 the general well-being in response to, or to recover 14 from, the outbreak of COVID–19. 15 (2) USE OF AUTHORITIES.—To carry out para- 16 graph (1), the President shall make use of any and 17 all available authorities at the disposal of the Fed- 18 eral Government to procure, manufacture, and sup- 19 port the manufacturing of critical health care re- 20 sources, including emergency authorities such as the 21 Defense Production Act of 1950 (50 U.S.C. 4511 et 22 seq.), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 23 1601 et seq.), and the Robert T. Stafford Disaster 24 Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 25 5121 et seq.). 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:12 May 16, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6719.IH H6719 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 6719 IH (3) DETERMINATION OF EMERGENCY END 1 DATE.—The Secretary of Health and Human Serv- 2 ices and the Administrator of the Federal Emer- 3 gency Management Agency shall jointly— 4 (A) determine the date on which all re- 5 quests from States for critical health care re- 6 sources related to the outbreak of COVID–19 7 are fulfilled or otherwise resolved, which shall 8 not be earlier than the day after the date on 9 which no new cases of COVID–19 are reported 10 in the United States for a period of not less 11 than 14 consecutive days; and 12 (B) promptly submit to Congress and the 13 Secretary of the Treasury a certification indi- 14 cating the date determined under subparagraph 15 (A). 16 (b) REPORTS TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 7 days 17 after the date of enactment of this Act, and every 7 days 18 thereafter until the COVID–19 emergency end date, the 19 Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Admin- 20 istrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency 21 shall jointly submit to Congress a report on the implemen- 22 tation of and activities authorized by this section, includ- 23 ing information on— 24 (1) the use of funds; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:12 May 16, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6719.IH H6719 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 6719 IH (2) the number of requests received from States 1 for critical health care resources, including the con- 2 tents of the requests and the dates on which the re- 3 quests are received and fulfilled; 4 (3) if any State request received has not been 5 fulfilled or has been partially fulfilled, the reasons 6 why the request was not fully fulfilled; 7 (4) the distribution of critical health care re- 8 sources by State, geographic area, and need; 9 (5) the criteria or methodology used to guide 10 the prioritization of State requests and the distribu- 11 tion of critical health care resources; and 12 (6) the sources of the critical health care re- 13 sources provided to States, including the prices paid 14 by the Federal Government for such critical health 15 care resources and to which suppliers such amounts 16 were paid. 17 (c) FUNDING; LIMITATIONS.— 18 (1) FUNDING.—There is appropriated, out of 19 amounts in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, 20 for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2020, to re- 21 main available until the COVID–19 emergency end 22 date, $75,000,000,000 to the Federal Emergency 23 Management Agency to carry out this section. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:12 May 16, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6719.IH H6719 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 6719 IH (2) LIMITATION.—No funds made available 1 under this section shall be provided to— 2 (A) any person who is a Federal elected of- 3 ficial or serving in a Senior Executive Service 4 position; or 5 (B) any entity that is controlled in whole 6 or in part by a Federal elected official or serv- 7 ing in a Senior Executive Service position. 8 (3) EMERGENCY DESIGNATION.— 9 (A) IN GENERAL.—The amounts provided 10 under this section are designated as an emer- 11 gency requirement pursuant to section 4(g) of 12 the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 (2 13 U.S.C. 933(g)). 14 (B) DESIGNATION IN SENATE.—In the 15 Senate, this section is designated as an emer- 16 gency requirement pursuant to section 4112(a) 17 of H. Con. Res. 71 (115th Congress), the con- 18 current resolution on the budget for fiscal year 19 2018. 20 (d) DEFINITIONS.—In this section— 21 (1) the term ‘‘COVID–19 emergency end date’’ 22 means the date on which all requests from States for 23 critical health care resources related to the outbreak 24 of COVID–19 are fulfilled or otherwise resolved, as 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:12 May 16, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6719.IH H6719 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 6719 IH certified by the Administrator of the Federal Emer- 1 gency Management Agency and the Secretary of 2 Health and Human Services under subsection (a)(3); 3 (2) the term ‘‘critical health care resources’’ in- 4 cludes— 5 (A) personal protective equipment (such as 6 surgical masks, N–95 respirator masks, sur- 7 gical gowns, and face visors); 8 (B) ventilators; 9 (C) testing reagents and compounds; 10 (D) approved vaccines, therapeutics, diag- 11 nostics, pharmaceuticals, small molecule active 12 pharmaceutical ingredients, and other necessary 13 drugs; 14 (E) ancillary medical supplies, and other 15 applicable supplies required for the administra- 16 tion of drugs, vaccines and other biological 17 products, medical devices, and diagnostic tests; 18 and 19 (F) other medical supplies or hospital in- 20 frastructure, as necessary; 21 (3) the term ‘‘Senior Executive Service posi- 22 tion’’ has the meaning given that term in section 23 3132(a) of title 5, United States Code; and 24 (4) the term ‘‘State’’ means— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:12 May 16, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6719.IH H6719 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 6719 IH (A) each of the several States of the 1 United States; 2 (B) the District of Columbia; 3 (C) the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; 4 (D) Guam; 5 (E) American Samoa; 6 (F) the Commonwealth of the Northern 7 Mariana Islands; 8 (G) the Federated States of Micronesia; 9 (H) the Republic of the Marshall Islands; 10 (I) the Republic of Palau; 11 (J) the United States Virgin Islands; and 12 (K) an Indian tribe, as defined in section 13 4(e) of the Indian Self-Determination and Edu- 14 cation Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304(e)). 15 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:12 May 16, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H6719.IH H6719 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS