American Food Workers Protection Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 8482 To require the Secretary of Agriculture to support the efforts of State and local governments to provide for priority testing of essential critical food and agriculture workers with respect to COVID–19, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OCTOBER 1, 2020 Mr. CRAWFORD (for himself, Mr. KELLY of Mississippi, and Mr. LAMALFA) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ag- riculture A BILL To require the Secretary of Agriculture to support the efforts of State and local governments to provide for priority testing of essential critical food and agriculture workers with respect to COVID–19, and for other purposes. 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 ‘‘American Food Work- 4 ers Protection Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:13 Oct 29, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8482.IH H8482 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 8482 IH SEC. 2. IDENTIFICATION OF COVID–19 TESTING NEEDS OF 1 CRITICAL FOOD AND AGRICULTURE WORK- 2 ERS. 3 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Agriculture 4 shall— 5 (1) adopt, for use by the Department of Agri- 6 culture in carrying out response efforts relating to, 7 and operations during, the COVID–19 pandemic, 8 the categorization of food and agriculture workers as 9 ‘‘essential critical infrastructure workers’’ identified 10 in the Guidance on the Essential Critical Infrastruc- 11 ture Workforce published by the Department of 12 Homeland Security on March 28, 2020 (or a subse- 13 quent version of that guidance); and 14 (2) coordinate with the Director of the Centers 15 for Disease Control and Prevention and the Admin- 16 istrator of the Federal Emergency Management 17 Agency to support efforts of State and local govern- 18 ments to provide for— 19 (A) priority testing of essential critical in- 20 frastructure workers (as such term is used in 21 paragraph (1)) with respect to the COVID–19 22 pandemic; 23 (B) priority access to personal protective 24 equipment, sanitizers, nonmedical-grade facial 25 coverings, and other health-related or protective 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:13 Oct 29, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8482.IH H8482 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 8482 IH supplies necessary to safely perform essential 1 critical infrastructure work; and 2 (C) ensure that the Federal agency respon- 3 sible for the distribution of a vaccine for 4 COVID–19 in the United States prioritizes es- 5 sential critical infrastructure workers (as such 6 term is used in paragraph (1)) for inoculation 7 with that vaccine. 8 (b) APPLICATION.—Nothing in this section requires 9 the provision of priority testing or priority access to per- 10 sonal protective equipment for essential critical infrastruc- 11 ture workers (as such term is used in subsection (a)(1)) 12 to be prioritized over the provision of that testing or access 13 to personal protective equipment for other individuals who 14 are identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Pre- 15 vention or any other relevant Federal, State, or local agen- 16 cy as having a higher priority for that testing or access 17 to personal protective equipment, including— 18 (1) patients; 19 (2) healthcare workers; and 20 (3) first responders. 21 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:13 Oct 29, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H8482.IH H8482 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS