Public Health Emergency Response and Accountability Act
Latest action · Jul 26, 2021 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedJul 26, 2021
- Passed SenateNot reached
- Passed HouseNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
Public Health Emergency Response and Accountability Act
This bill modifies funding mechanisms and establishes reporting requirements relating to public health emergencies that are infectious disease outbreaks, bioterrorist attacks, or disasters.
Specifically, the bill establishes a formula-based funding mechanism for the Public Health Emergency Fund to automatically provide funding in the event of these types of emergencies. The amounts provided by the bill are designated as an emergency requirement pursuant to the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 (PAYGO) and the Senate PAYGO rule. (This excludes the budget effects from being counted for the purposes of enforcing the PAYGO rules.)
The bill also puts in place additional reporting requirements concerning these types of public health emergencies. Upon determination of such an emergency, the Department of Health and Human Services must convene a group of federal officials to prepare monthly reports for Congress on emergency response efforts. In addition, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) must issue a report on the governmental response to such an emergency within six months of the emergency's termination.
The GAO must also report on the capacity of the public health system to respond effectively to infectious disease outbreaks and how funds for public health emergencies have been expended within the last two years.
Finally, the bill exempts the Public Health Emergency Fund from sequestration. (Sequestration is a process of automatic, usually across-the-board spending reductions under which budgetary resources are permanently cancelled to enforce specific budget policy goals.)
Cosponsors 2
Members who signed on, in the order they did. Signatures ran from Jul 27, 2021 to Jul 28, 2021.
| Seat | Cosponsor | Signed on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| D-HI | Brian Schatz | Jul 27, 2021 | |
| D-MN | Tina Smith | Jul 28, 2021 |
Actions 2
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Jul 26, 2021Introduced in Senate
- Jul 26, 2021Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Health.
- Appropriations
- Chemical and biological weapons
- Congressional oversight
- Disaster relief and insurance
- Emergency medical services and trauma care
- Emergency planning and evacuation
- Government studies and investigations
- Government trust funds
- Health
- Health personnel
- Health programs administration and funding
- Health technology, devices, supplies
- Infectious and parasitic diseases
- Terrorism
Text 1
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Jul 26, 2021Introduced in Senate
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.