IIB 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 501 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

FEBRUARY 26, 2019 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, 

Labor, and Pensions 

AN ACT 

To amend the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize and 

enhance the poison center national toll-free number, national media campaign, and grant program, and for other 

purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Poison Center Network 

3 Enhancement Act of 2019’’. 

4 SEC. 2. REAUTHORIZATION OF POISON CONTROL CENTERS 

5 NATIONAL TOLL-FREE NUMBER. 

6 Section 1271 of the Public Health Service Act (42 

7 U.S.C. 300d–71) is amended to read as follows: 

8 ‘‘SEC. 1271. ESTABLISHMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF THE 

9 NATIONAL TOLL-FREE NUMBER AND EN10 HANCED COMMUNICATIONS CAPABILITIES. 

11 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall provide co12 ordination and assistance to poison control centers for— 

13 ‘‘(1) the development, establishment, implemen14 tation, and maintenance of a nationwide toll-free 

15 phone number; and 

16 ‘‘(2) the enhancement of communications capa17 bilities, which may include text capabilities. 

18 ‘‘(b) CONSULTATION.—The Secretary may consult 

19 with nationally recognized professional organizations in 

20 the field of poison control to determine the best and most 

21 effective means of achieving the goals described in para22 graphs (1) and (2) of subsection (a). 

23 ‘‘(c) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—In assisting with 

24 public health emergencies, responses, or preparedness, 

25 nothing in this section shall be construed to restrict the 


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1 work of poison control centers or the use of their resources 

2 by the Secretary or other governmental agencies. 

3 ‘‘(d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

4 is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 

5 $700,000 for each of fiscal years 2020 through 2024.’’. 

6 SEC. 3. REAUTHORIZATION OF NATIONWIDE PUBLIC 

7 AWARENESS CAMPAIGN TO PROMOTE POI8 SON CONTROL CENTER UTILIZATION. 

9 Section 1272 of the Public Health Service Act (42 

10 U.S.C. 300d–72) is amended to read as follows: 

11 ‘‘SEC. 1272. NATIONWIDE PUBLIC AWARENESS CAMPAIGN 

12 TO PROMOTE POISON CONTROL CENTER UTI13 LIZATION AND THEIR PUBLIC HEALTH EMER14 GENCY RESPONSE CAPABILITIES. 

15 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall— 

16 ‘‘(1) carry out, and expand upon, a national 

17 public awareness campaign to educate the public and 

18 health care providers about— 

19 ‘‘(A) poisoning, toxic exposure, and drug 

20 misuse prevention; and 

21 ‘‘(B) the availability of poison control cen22 ter resources in local communities; and 

23 ‘‘(2) as part of such campaign, highlight the 

24 nationwide toll-free number and enhanced commu25 nications capabilities supported under section 1271. 


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1 ‘‘(b) CONSULTATION.—In carrying out and expand2 ing upon the national campaign under subsection (a), the 

3 Secretary may consult with nationally recognized profes4 sional organizations in the field of poison control response 

5 for the purpose of determining the best and most effective 

6 methods for achieving public awareness. 

7 ‘‘(c) CONTRACT WITH ENTITY.—The Secretary may 

8 carry out subsection (a) by entering into contracts with 

9 one or more public or private entities, including nationally 

10 recognized professional organizations in the field of poison 

11 control and national media firms, for the development and 

12 implementation of the awareness campaign under sub13 section (a), which may include— 

14 ‘‘(1) the development and distribution of poi15 soning and toxic exposure prevention, poison control 

16 center, and public health emergency awareness and 

17 response materials; 

18 ‘‘(2) television, radio, internet, and newspaper 

19 public service announcements; and 

20 ‘‘(3) other means and activities to provide for 

21 public and professional awareness and education. 

22 ‘‘(d) EVALUATION.—The Secretary shall— 

23 ‘‘(1) establish baseline measures and bench24 marks to quantitatively evaluate the impact of the 


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1 nationwide public awareness campaign carried out 

2 under this section; and 

3 ‘‘(2) on a biennial basis, prepare and submit to 

4 the appropriate committees of Congress an evalua5 tion of the nationwide public awareness campaign. 

6 ‘‘(e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

7 is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section, 

8 $800,000 for each of fiscal years 2020 through 2024.’’. 

9 SEC. 4. REAUTHORIZATION OF THE POISON CONTROL CEN10 TER GRANT PROGRAM. 

11 Section 1273 of the Public Health Service Act (42 

12 U.S.C. 300d–73) is amended to read as follows: 

13 ‘‘SEC. 1273. MAINTENANCE OF THE POISON CONTROL CEN14 TER GRANT PROGRAM. 

15 ‘‘(a) AUTHORIZATION OF PROGRAM.—The Secretary 

16 shall award grants to poison control centers accredited 

17 under subsection (c) (or granted a waiver under subsection 

18 (d)) and nationally recognized professional organizations 

19 in the field of poison control for the purposes of— 

20 ‘‘(1) preventing, and providing treatment rec21 ommendations for, poisonings and toxic exposures 

22 including opioid and drug misuse; 

23 ‘‘(2) assisting with public health emergencies, 

24 responses, and preparedness; and 


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1 ‘‘(3) complying with the operational require2 ments needed to sustain the accreditation of the cen3 ter under subsection (c). 

4 ‘‘(b) ADDITIONAL USES OF FUNDS.—In addition to 

5 the purposes described in subsection (a), a poison center 

6 or professional organization awarded a grant under such 

7 subsection may also use amounts received under such 

8 grant— 

9 ‘‘(1) to research, establish, implement, and 

10 evaluate best practices in the United States for poi11 soning prevention, poison control center outreach, 

12 opioid and drug misuse information and response, 

13 and public health emergency, response, and pre14 paredness programs; 

15 ‘‘(2) to research, develop, implement, revise, 

16 and communicate standard patient management 

17 guidelines for commonly encountered toxic expo18 sures; 

19 ‘‘(3) to improve national toxic exposure and 

20 opioid misuse surveillance by enhancing cooperative 

21 activities between poison control centers in the 

22 United States and the Centers for Disease Control 

23 and Prevention and other governmental agencies; 

24 ‘‘(4) to research, improve, and enhance the 

25 communications and response capability and capacVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:43 Feb 26, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H501.RFS H501

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1 ity of the Nation’s network of poison control centers 

2 to facilitate increased access to the centers through 

3 the integration and modernization of the current 

4 poison control centers communications and data sys5 tem, including enhancing the network’s telephony, 

6 internet, data, and social networking technologies; 

7 ‘‘(5) to develop, support, and enhance tech8 nology and capabilities of nationally recognized pro9 fessional organizations in the field of poison control 

10 to collect national poisoning, toxic occurrence, and 

11 related public health data; 

12 ‘‘(6) to develop initiatives to foster the en13 hanced public health utilization of national poison 

14 data collected by such organizations; 

15 ‘‘(7) to support and expand the toxicologic ex16 pertise within poison control centers; and 

17 ‘‘(8) to improve the capacity of poison control 

18 centers to answer high volumes of contacts and 

19 internet communications, and to sustain and en20 hance the poison control center’s network capability 

21 to respond during times of national crisis or other 

22 public health emergencies. 

23 ‘‘(c) ACCREDITATION.—Except as provided in sub24 section (d), the Secretary may award a grant to a poison 

25 control center under subsection (a) only if— 


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1 ‘‘(1) the center has been accredited by a nation2 ally recognized professional organization in the field 

3 of poison control, and the Secretary has approved 

4 the organization as having in effect standards for 

5 accreditation that reasonably provide for the protec6 tion of the public health with respect to poisoning; 

7 or 

8 ‘‘(2) the center has been accredited by a State 

9 government, and the Secretary has approved the 

10 State government as having in effect standards for 

11 accreditation that reasonably provide for the protec12 tion of the public health with respect to poisoning. 

13 ‘‘(d) WAIVER OF ACCREDITATION REQUIREMENTS.— 

14 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may grant a 

15 waiver of the accreditation requirements of sub16 section (c) with respect to a nonaccredited poison 

17 control center that applies for a grant under this 

18 section if such center can reasonably demonstrate 

19 that the center will obtain such an accreditation 

20 within a reasonable period of time as determined ap21 propriate by the Secretary. 

22 ‘‘(2) RENEWAL.—The Secretary may renew a 

23 waiver under paragraph (1). 

24 ‘‘(3) LIMITATION.—The Secretary may not, 

25 after the date of enactment of the Poison Control 


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1 Network Enhancement Act of 2019, grant to a poi2 son control center waivers or renewals that total 

3 more than 5 years. 

4 ‘‘(e) SUPPLEMENT NOT SUPPLANT.—Amounts made 

5 available to a poison control center under this section shall 

6 be used to supplement and not supplant other Federal, 

7 State, or local funds provided for such center. 

8 ‘‘(f) MAINTENANCE OF EFFORT.—A poison control 

9 center, in utilizing the proceeds of a grant under this sec10 tion, shall maintain the annual recurring expenditures of 

11 the center for its activities at a level that is not less than 

12 80 percent of the average level of such recurring expendi13 tures maintained by the center for the preceding 3 fiscal 

14 years for which a grant is received. 

15 ‘‘(g) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

16 is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section, 

17 $28,600,000 for each of fiscal years 2020 through 2024. 

18 The Secretary may utilize an amount not to exceed 6 per19 cent of the amount appropriated pursuant to the pre20 ceding sentence for each fiscal year for coordination, dis21 semination, technical assistance, program evaluation, data 

22 activities, and other program administration functions, 


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1 which are determined by the Secretary to be appropriate 

2 for carrying out the program under this section.’’. 

Passed the House of Representatives February 25, 

2019. 

Attest: CHERYL L. JOHNSON, 

Clerk. 


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