II 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 3921 

To require the Federal Government to provide critical health care resources 

in response to the COVID–19 pandemic. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JUNE 9, 2020 

Mr. SANDERS introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 

A BILL 

To require the Federal Government to provide critical health 

care resources in response to the COVID–19 pandemic. 

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 ‘‘Emergency Medical 

5 Supplies Procurement Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FEDERAL PROVISION OF CRITICAL HEALTH CARE 

7 RESOURCES. 

8 (a) REQUIREMENT TO PROVIDE CRITICAL HEALTH

9 CARE RESOURCES.— 


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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—The President, acting 

2 through the Administrator of the Federal Emer3 gency Management Agency, and in consultation with 

4 the Secretary of Health and Human Services and 

5 the head of any other relevant Federal agency, shall 

6 fulfill, to the greatest extent possible and with due 

7 urgency, according to need, all requests from States 

8 for critical health care resources that are required to 

9 support medical providers, treat patients, or promote 

10 the general well-being in response to, or to recover 

11 from, the outbreak of COVID–19. 

12 (2) USE OF AUTHORITIES.—To carry out para13 graph (1), the President shall make use of any and 

14 all available authorities at the disposal of the Fed15 eral Government to procure, manufacture, and sup16 port the manufacturing of critical health care re17 sources, including emergency authorities such as the 

18 Defense Production Act of 1950 (50 U.S.C. 4511 et 

19 seq.), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 

20 1601 et seq.), and the Robert T. Stafford Disaster 

21 Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 

22 5121 et seq.). 

23 (3) DETERMINATION OF EMERGENCY END

24 DATE.—The Secretary of Health and Human ServVerDate Sep 11 2014 06:44 Jun 26, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3921.IS S3921

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1 ices and the Administrator of the Federal Emer2 gency Management Agency shall jointly— 

3 (A) determine the date on which all re4 quests from States for critical health care re5 sources related to the outbreak of COVID–19 

6 are fulfilled or otherwise resolved, which shall 

7 not be earlier than the day after the date on 

8 which no new cases of COVID–19 are reported 

9 in the United States for a period of not less 

10 than 14 consecutive days; and 

11 (B) promptly submit to Congress and the 

12 Secretary of the Treasury a certification indi13 cating the date determined under subparagraph 

14 (A). 

15 (b) REPORTS TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 7 days 

16 after the date of enactment of this Act, and every 7 days 

17 thereafter until the COVID–19 emergency end date, the 

18 Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Admin19 istrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency 

20 shall jointly submit to Congress a report on the implemen21 tation of and activities authorized by this section, includ22 ing information on— 

23 (1) the use of funds; 

24 (2) the number of requests received from States 

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1 tents of the requests and the dates on which the re2 quests are received and fulfilled; 

3 (3) if any State request received has not been 

4 fulfilled or has been partially fulfilled, the reasons 

5 why the request was not fully fulfilled; 

6 (4) the distribution of critical health care re7 sources by State, geographic area, and need; 

8 (5) the criteria or methodology used to guide 

9 the prioritization of State requests and the distribu10 tion of critical health care resources; and 

11 (6) the sources of the critical health care re12 sources provided to States, including the prices paid 

13 by the Federal Government for such critical health 

14 care resources and to which suppliers such amounts 

15 were paid. 

16 (c) FUNDING; LIMITATIONS.— 

17 (1) FUNDING.—There is appropriated, out of 

18 amounts in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, 

19 for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2020, to re20 main available until the COVID–19 emergency end 

21 date, $75,000,000,000 to the Federal Emergency 

22 Management Agency to carry out this section. 

23 (2) LIMITATION.—No funds made available 

24 under this section shall be provided to— 


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1 (A) any person who is a Federal elected of2 ficial or serving in a Senior Executive Service 

3 position; or 

4 (B) any entity that is controlled in whole 

5 or in part by a Federal elected official or serv6 ing in a Senior Executive Service position. 

7 (3) EMERGENCY DESIGNATION.— 

8 (A) IN GENERAL.—The amounts provided 

9 under this section are designated as an emer10 gency requirement pursuant to section 4(g) of 

11 the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 (2 

12 U.S.C. 933(g)). 

13 (B) DESIGNATION IN SENATE.—In the 

14 Senate, this section is designated as an emer15 gency requirement pursuant to section 4112(a) 

16 of H. Con. Res. 71 (115th Congress), the con17 current resolution on the budget for fiscal year 

18 2018. 

19 (d) DEFINITIONS.—In this section— 

20 (1) the term ‘‘COVID–19 emergency end date’’ 

21 means the date on which all requests from States for 

22 critical health care resources related to the outbreak 

23 of COVID–19 are fulfilled or otherwise resolved, as 

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1 gency Management Agency and the Secretary of 

2 Health and Human Services under subsection (a)(3); 

3 (2) the term ‘‘critical health care resources’’ in4 cludes— 

5 (A) personal protective equipment (such as 

6 surgical masks, N–95 respirator masks, sur7 gical gowns, and face visors); 

8 (B) ventilators; 

9 (C) testing reagents and compounds; 

10 (D) approved vaccines, therapeutics, diag11 nostics, pharmaceuticals, small molecule active 

12 pharmaceutical ingredients, and other necessary 

13 drugs; 

14 (E) ancillary medical supplies, and other 

15 applicable supplies required for the administra16 tion of drugs, vaccines and other biological 

17 products, medical devices, and diagnostic tests; 

18 and 

19 (F) other medical supplies or hospital in20 frastructure, as necessary; 

21 (3) the term ‘‘Senior Executive Service posi22 tion’’ has the meaning given that term in section 

23 3132(a) of title 5, United States Code; and 

24 (4) the term ‘‘State’’ means— 


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1 (A) each of the several States of the 

2 United States; 

3 (B) the District of Columbia; 

4 (C) the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; 

5 (D) Guam; 

6 (E) American Samoa; 

7 (F) the Commonwealth of the Northern 

8 Mariana Islands; 

9 (G) the Federated States of Micronesia; 

10 (H) the Republic of the Marshall Islands; 

11 (I) the Republic of Palau; 

12 (J) the United States Virgin Islands; and 

13 (K) an Indian tribe, as defined in section 

14 4(e) of the Indian Self-Determination and Edu15 cation Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304(e)). 

Æ 


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