Community Readiness Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 8605 To authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services, in consultation with the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to award grants to certain entities to conduct research on, or to establish, waste- water surveillance and other early warning systems, and for other pur- poses. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OCTOBER 16, 2020 Mr. KIM (for himself and Mr. BILIRAKIS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce A BILL To authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services, in consultation with the Administrator of the Environ- mental Protection Agency to award grants to certain entities to conduct research on, or to establish, waste- water surveillance and other early warning systems, 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 ‘‘Community Readiness 4 Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:49 Nov 01, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8605.IH H8605 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 8605 IH SEC. 2. GRANTS FOR RESEARCH ON, OR ESTABLISHING, 1 WASTEWATER SURVEILLANCE AND OTHER 2 EARLY WARNING SYSTEMS. 3 Subtitle C of title XVIII of the Public Health Service 4 Act (42 U.S.C. 300hh–31 et seq.) is amended by adding 5 at the end the following: 6 ‘‘SEC. 2823. GRANTS FOR RESEARCH ON, OR ESTABLISHING, 7 WASTEWATER SURVEILLANCE AND OTHER 8 EARLY WARNING SYSTEMS. 9 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Health and 10 Human Services, in consultation with the Administrator 11 of the Environmental Protection Agency, may award 12 grants to eligible entities to conduct research on, or to es- 13 tablish, a wastewater surveillance or other early warning 14 system through— 15 ‘‘(1) wastewater testing; 16 ‘‘(2) temperature tracking to monitor axillary 17 body temperature; and 18 ‘‘(3) other methods deemed permissible by the 19 Secretary and Administrator. 20 ‘‘(b) PERMISSIBLE USES OF FUNDS.—A grant recipi- 21 ent under this section may use grant funds to support the 22 activities described in subsection (a), including by— 23 ‘‘(1) paying for data-centric services that can 24 detect infectious diseases before positive cases or 25 hospitalizations; 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:49 Nov 01, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8605.IH H8605 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 8605 IH ‘‘(2) entering into contracts with private compa- 1 nies to implement early warning detection methods; 2 or 3 ‘‘(3) funding research to study early warning 4 detection methods. 5 ‘‘(c) PRIORITY.—In selecting grant recipients under 6 this section, the Secretary shall give priority to eligible en- 7 tities proposing to conduct research on, or to establish, 8 wastewater surveillance or other early warning system in 9 one or more areas that— 10 ‘‘(1) are (or include one or more areas that are) 11 a hot spot; or 12 ‘‘(2) a higher percentage of vulnerable popu- 13 lations than the national average. 14 ‘‘(d) FEDERAL PRIVACY REQUIREMENTS.—Nothing 15 in this section shall be construed to supersede any Federal 16 privacy or confidentiality requirement, including the regu- 17 lations promulgated under section 264(c) of the Health 18 Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (42 19 U.S.C. 1320d–2 note) and section 543 of the Public 20 Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 290dd–2). 21 ‘‘(e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 22 ‘‘(1) The term ‘Administrator’ means the Ad- 23 ministrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. 24 ‘‘(2) The term ‘eligible entity’ means— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:49 Nov 01, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8605.IH H8605 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 8605 IH ‘‘(A) a State government; 1 ‘‘(B) a local government; 2 ‘‘(C) a Tribal government; 3 ‘‘(D) an entity that conducts health re- 4 search; and 5 ‘‘(E) an academic institution. 6 ‘‘(3) The term ‘emergency period’ has the 7 meaning given to that term in section 1135(g)(1)(B) 8 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1320b– 9 5(g)(1)(B)). 10 ‘‘(4) The term ‘hot spot’ means a geographic 11 area where the rate of infection with a particular 12 pathogen exceeds the national average. 13 ‘‘(5) The term ‘local government’ means a 14 county, municipality, town, township, village, parish, 15 borough, or other unit of general local government. 16 ‘‘(6) The term ‘Secretary’ means the Secretary 17 of Health and Human Services. 18 ‘‘(7) The term ‘State’ means each of the several 19 States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth 20 of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Com- 21 monwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the 22 Virgin Islands, and the Trust Territory of the Pa- 23 cific Islands. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:49 Nov 01, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8605.IH H8605 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 8605 IH ‘‘(8) The term ‘vulnerable population’ means 1 people at increased risk of severe illness. 2 ‘‘(f) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—To 3 carry out this section, there are authorized to be appro- 4 priated $18,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2021 through 5 2025.’’. 6 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:49 Nov 01, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H8605.IH H8605 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS