Emergency Medical Supplies Procurement Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 3921 To require the Federal Government to provide critical health care resources in response to the COVID–19 pandemic. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JUNE 9, 2020 Mr. SANDERS introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 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 SEC. 2. FEDERAL PROVISION OF CRITICAL HEALTH CARE 6 RESOURCES. 7 (a) REQUIREMENT TO PROVIDE CRITICAL HEALTH 8 CARE RESOURCES.— 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:44 Jun 26, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3921.IS S3921 ctelli on DSK30NT082PROD with BILLS 2 •S 3921 IS (1) IN GENERAL.—The President, acting 1 through the Administrator of the Federal Emer- 2 gency Management Agency, and in consultation with 3 the Secretary of Health and Human Services and 4 the head of any other relevant Federal agency, shall 5 fulfill, to the greatest extent possible and with due 6 urgency, according to need, all requests from States 7 for critical health care resources that are required to 8 support medical providers, treat patients, or promote 9 the general well-being in response to, or to recover 10 from, the outbreak of COVID–19. 11 (2) USE OF AUTHORITIES.—To carry out para- 12 graph (1), the President shall make use of any and 13 all available authorities at the disposal of the Fed- 14 eral Government to procure, manufacture, and sup- 15 port the manufacturing of critical health care re- 16 sources, including emergency authorities such as the 17 Defense Production Act of 1950 (50 U.S.C. 4511 et 18 seq.), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 19 1601 et seq.), and the Robert T. Stafford Disaster 20 Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 21 5121 et seq.). 22 (3) DETERMINATION OF EMERGENCY END 23 DATE.—The Secretary of Health and Human Serv- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:44 Jun 26, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3921.IS S3921 ctelli on DSK30NT082PROD with BILLS 3 •S 3921 IS ices and the Administrator of the Federal Emer- 1 gency Management Agency shall jointly— 2 (A) determine the date on which all re- 3 quests from States for critical health care re- 4 sources related to the outbreak of COVID–19 5 are fulfilled or otherwise resolved, which shall 6 not be earlier than the day after the date on 7 which no new cases of COVID–19 are reported 8 in the United States for a period of not less 9 than 14 consecutive days; and 10 (B) promptly submit to Congress and the 11 Secretary of the Treasury a certification indi- 12 cating the date determined under subparagraph 13 (A). 14 (b) REPORTS TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 7 days 15 after the date of enactment of this Act, and every 7 days 16 thereafter until the COVID–19 emergency end date, the 17 Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Admin- 18 istrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency 19 shall jointly submit to Congress a report on the implemen- 20 tation of and activities authorized by this section, includ- 21 ing information on— 22 (1) the use of funds; 23 (2) the number of requests received from States 24 for critical health care resources, including the con- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:44 Jun 26, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3921.IS S3921 ctelli on DSK30NT082PROD with BILLS 4 •S 3921 IS tents of the requests and the dates on which the re- 1 quests are received and fulfilled; 2 (3) if any State request received has not been 3 fulfilled or has been partially fulfilled, the reasons 4 why the request was not fully fulfilled; 5 (4) the distribution of critical health care re- 6 sources by State, geographic area, and need; 7 (5) the criteria or methodology used to guide 8 the prioritization of State requests and the distribu- 9 tion of critical health care resources; and 10 (6) the sources of the critical health care re- 11 sources provided to States, including the prices paid 12 by the Federal Government for such critical health 13 care resources and to which suppliers such amounts 14 were paid. 15 (c) FUNDING; LIMITATIONS.— 16 (1) FUNDING.—There is appropriated, out of 17 amounts in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, 18 for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2020, to re- 19 main available until the COVID–19 emergency end 20 date, $75,000,000,000 to the Federal Emergency 21 Management Agency to carry out this section. 22 (2) LIMITATION.—No funds made available 23 under this section shall be provided to— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:44 Jun 26, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3921.IS S3921 ctelli on DSK30NT082PROD with BILLS 5 •S 3921 IS (A) any person who is a Federal elected of- 1 ficial or serving in a Senior Executive Service 2 position; or 3 (B) any entity that is controlled in whole 4 or in part by a Federal elected official or serv- 5 ing in a Senior Executive Service position. 6 (3) EMERGENCY DESIGNATION.— 7 (A) IN GENERAL.—The amounts provided 8 under this section are designated as an emer- 9 gency requirement pursuant to section 4(g) of 10 the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 (2 11 U.S.C. 933(g)). 12 (B) DESIGNATION IN SENATE.—In the 13 Senate, this section is designated as an emer- 14 gency requirement pursuant to section 4112(a) 15 of H. Con. Res. 71 (115th Congress), the con- 16 current resolution on the budget for fiscal year 17 2018. 18 (d) DEFINITIONS.—In this section— 19 (1) the term ‘‘COVID–19 emergency end date’’ 20 means the date on which all requests from States for 21 critical health care resources related to the outbreak 22 of COVID–19 are fulfilled or otherwise resolved, as 23 certified by the Administrator of the Federal Emer- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:44 Jun 26, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3921.IS S3921 ctelli on DSK30NT082PROD with BILLS 6 •S 3921 IS gency Management Agency and the Secretary of 1 Health and Human Services under subsection (a)(3); 2 (2) the term ‘‘critical health care resources’’ in- 3 cludes— 4 (A) personal protective equipment (such as 5 surgical masks, N–95 respirator masks, sur- 6 gical gowns, and face visors); 7 (B) ventilators; 8 (C) testing reagents and compounds; 9 (D) approved vaccines, therapeutics, diag- 10 nostics, pharmaceuticals, small molecule active 11 pharmaceutical ingredients, and other necessary 12 drugs; 13 (E) ancillary medical supplies, and other 14 applicable supplies required for the administra- 15 tion of drugs, vaccines and other biological 16 products, medical devices, and diagnostic tests; 17 and 18 (F) other medical supplies or hospital in- 19 frastructure, as necessary; 20 (3) the term ‘‘Senior Executive Service posi- 21 tion’’ has the meaning given that term in section 22 3132(a) of title 5, United States Code; and 23 (4) the term ‘‘State’’ means— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:44 Jun 26, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3921.IS S3921 ctelli on DSK30NT082PROD with BILLS 7 •S 3921 IS (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 06:44 Jun 26, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S3921.IS S3921 ctelli on DSK30NT082PROD with BILLS