I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 5321 

To amend the Public Health Service Act to expand, enhance, and improve 

public health data systems, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

DECEMBER 5, 2019 

Mrs. MCBATH (for herself and Mr. CARTER of Georgia) introduced the 

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To amend the Public Health Service Act to expand, enhance, 

and improve public health data systems, 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, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Public Health Infra5 structure Modernization Act of 2019’’. 

6 SEC. 2. PUBLIC HEALTH DATA SYSTEM TRANSFORMATION. 

7 Subtitle C of title XXVIII of the Public Health Serv8 ice Act (42 U.S.C. 300hh–31 et seq.) is amended by add9 ing at the end the following: 


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1 ‘‘SEC. 2822. PUBLIC HEALTH DATA SYSTEM TRANS2 FORMATION. 

3 ‘‘(a) EXPANDING CDC AND PUBLIC HEALTH DE4 PARTMENT CAPABILITIES.— 

5 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary, acting 

6 through the Director of the Centers for Disease 

7 Control and Prevention, shall— 

8 ‘‘(A) conduct activities to expand, enhance, 

9 and improve public health data systems used by 

10 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 

11 related to the interoperability and improvement 

12 of such systems (including with respect to pre13 paredness for, prevention and detection of, and 

14 response to public health emergencies); and 

15 ‘‘(B) award grants or cooperative agree16 ments to State, local, Tribal, or territorial pub17 lic health departments for the expansion and 

18 modernization of public health data systems, to 

19 assist public health departments in— 

20 ‘‘(i) assessing current data infrastruc21 ture capabilities and gaps to improve con22 sistency in data collection, storage, and 

23 analysis, and as appropriate to improve 

24 dissemination of public health-related in25 formation; 


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1 ‘‘(ii) improving secure public health 

2 data collection, transmission, exchange, 

3 maintenance, and analysis; 

4 ‘‘(iii) improving the secure exchange 

5 of data between the Centers for Disease 

6 Control and Prevention, State, local, Trib7 al, and territorial public health depart8 ments, public health organizations, and 

9 health care providers, including— 

10 ‘‘(I) between public health offi11 cials in multiple jurisdictions within a 

12 State; and 

13 ‘‘(II) by simplifying and sup14 porting reporting by health care pro15 viders pursuant to State law, includ16 ing through the use of health informa17 tion technology; 

18 ‘‘(iv) enhancing the interoperability of 

19 public health data systems (including sys20 tems created or accessed by public health 

21 departments) with health information tech22 nology, including with health information 

23 technology certified under section 

24 3001(c)(5); 


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1 ‘‘(v) supporting and training public 

2 health data systems, data science, and 

3 informatics personnel; 

4 ‘‘(vi) supporting earlier disease and 

5 health condition detection, such as through 

6 near real-time data monitoring, to support 

7 rapid public health responses; 

8 ‘‘(vii) supporting activities within the 

9 applicable jurisdiction related to the expan10 sion and modernization of electronic case 

11 reporting; and 

12 ‘‘(viii) developing and disseminating 

13 information related to the use and impor14 tance of public health data. 

15 ‘‘(2) DATA STANDARDS.—In carrying out para16 graph (1), the Secretary, acting through the Direc17 tor of the Centers for Disease Control and Preven18 tion, shall, as appropriate and in coordination with 

19 the Office of the National Coordinator for Health 

20 Information Technology, designate data and tech21 nology standards (including standards for interoper22 ability) for public health data systems, with def23 erence given to standards published by consensus24 based standards development organizations with 


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1 public input and voluntary consensus-based stand2 ards bodies. 

3 ‘‘(3) PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS.—The 

4 Secretary may develop and utilize public-private 

5 partnerships for technical assistance, training, and 

6 related implementation support for State, local, 

7 Tribal, and territorial public health departments, 

8 and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 

9 on the expansion and modernization of electronic 

10 case reporting and public health data systems, as 

11 applicable. 

12 ‘‘(b) REQUIREMENTS.— 

13 ‘‘(1) HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

14 STANDARDS.—The Secretary may not award a grant 

15 or cooperative agreement under subsection (a)(1)(B) 

16 unless the applicant uses or agrees to use standards 

17 endorsed by the National Coordinator for Health In18 formation Technology pursuant to section 

19 3001(c)(1) or adopted by the Secretary under sec20 tion 3004. 

21 ‘‘(2) WAIVER.—The Secretary may waive the 

22 requirement under paragraph (1) with respect to an 

23 applicant if the Secretary determines that the activi24 ties under subsection (a)(1)(B) cannot otherwise be 

25 carried out within the applicable jurisdiction. 


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1 ‘‘(3) APPLICATION.—A State, local, Tribal, or 

2 territorial health department applying for a grant or 

3 cooperative agreement under this section shall sub4 mit an application to the Secretary at such time and 

5 in such manner as the Secretary may require. Such 

6 application shall include information describing— 

7 ‘‘(A) the activities that will be supported 

8 by the grant or cooperative agreement; and 

9 ‘‘(B) how the modernization of the public 

10 health data systems involved will support or im11 pact the public health infrastructure of the 

12 health department, including a description of 

13 remaining gaps, if any, and the actions needed 

14 to address such gaps. 

15 ‘‘(c) STRATEGY AND IMPLEMENTATION PLAN.—Not 

16 later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this 

17 section, the Secretary, acting through the Director of the 

18 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shall submit 

19 to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pen20 sions of the Senate and the Committee on Energy and 

21 Commerce of the House of Representatives a coordinated 

22 strategy and an accompanying implementation plan that 

23 identifies and describes the measures the Secretary will 

24 utilize to— 


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1 ‘‘(1) update and improve public health data sys2 tems used by the Centers for Disease Control and 

3 Prevention; and 

4 ‘‘(2) carry out the activities described in this 

5 section to support the improvement of State, local, 

6 Tribal, and territorial public health data systems. 

7 ‘‘(d) CONSULTATION.—In carrying out this section, 

8 the Secretary, acting through the Director of the Centers 

9 for Disease Control and Prevention, shall consult with 

10 State, local, Tribal, and territorial public health depart11 ments, professional medical and public health associations, 

12 associations representing hospitals or other health care en13 tities, health information technology experts, and other ap14 propriate public or private entities. 

15 ‘‘(e) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 1 year 

16 after the date of enactment of this section, the Secretary 

17 shall submit a report to the Committee on Health, Edu18 cation, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate and the Com19 mittee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Rep20 resentatives that includes— 

21 ‘‘(1) a description of any barriers to— 

22 ‘‘(A) public health authorities imple23 menting interoperable public health data sys24 tems and electronic case reporting; 


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1 ‘‘(B) the exchange of information pursuant 

2 to electronic case reporting; or 

3 ‘‘(C) reporting by health care providers 

4 using such public health data systems, as ap5 propriate, and pursuant to State law; 

6 ‘‘(2) an assessment of the potential public 

7 health impact of implementing electronic case re8 porting and interoperable public health data sys9 tems; and 

10 ‘‘(3) a description of the activities carried out 

11 pursuant to this section. 

12 ‘‘(f) ELECTRONIC CASE REPORTING.—In this sec13 tion, the term ‘electronic case reporting’ means the auto14 mated identification, generation, and bilateral exchange of 

15 reports of health events among electronic health record or 

16 health information technology systems and public health 

17 authorities. 

18 ‘‘(g) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—To 

19 carry out this section, there is authorized to be appro20 priated $100,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2020 

21 through 2024.’’. 

Æ 


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