II 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 4328 

To require the Comptroller General of the United States to conduct a study 

and report on data quality, sharing, transparency, access, and analysis. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 27, 2020 

Mr. SCHUMER (for himself, Mrs. MURRAY, Mr. BROWN, Ms. BALDWIN, Mr. 

DURBIN, Mr. CASEY, Ms. ROSEN, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. LEAHY, Mr. 

REED, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, Ms. SMITH, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Mr. 

BLUMENTHAL, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Mr. KAINE, Ms. WARREN, Mr. HEINRICH, Ms. HARRIS, Mr. UDALL, Mr. MARKEY, Mr. MERKLEY, Mrs. 

GILLIBRAND, Mr. WHITEHOUSE, Mr. CARDIN, Ms. STABENOW, Mr. 

BOOKER, Mr. WYDEN, Ms. DUCKWORTH, Mrs. SHAHEEN, and Mr. BENNET) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to 

the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

A BILL 

To require the Comptroller General of the United States 

to conduct a study and report on data quality, sharing, 

transparency, access, and analysis. 

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

3 SECTION 1. PROTECTING DATA QUALITY, SHARING, TRANS4 PARENCY, ACCESS, AND ANALYSIS. 

5 (a) INQUIRY AND SUBMISSION OF FINDINGS.— 


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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 7 days after 

2 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comp3 troller General of the United States (referred to in 

4 this section as the ‘‘Comptroller General’’) shall ini5 tiate an inquiry into any changes or interruptions in 

6 data quality, sharing, transparency, access, and 

7 analysis resulting from the changes to COVID–19 

8 hospital data reporting requirements initiated by the 

9 White House Coronavirus Task Force and the De10 partment of Health and Human Services on July 

11 13, 2020. 

12 (2) SUBMISSION OF FINDINGS.—Not later than 

13 45 days after initiation of such inquiry, the Comp14 troller General shall present its findings to the Com15 mittee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

16 of the Senate, the Committee on Energy and Com17 merce of the House of Representatives, and the De18 partment of Health and Human Services, in oral 

19 briefings, which shall detail— 

20 (A) what is known about any changes or 

21 interruptions in data quality, sharing, trans22 parency, access to data, and analysis or access 

23 to relevant analytics, including whether such 

24 changes increased, decreased, expedited, or de25 layed such quality, sharing, transparency, acVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:06 Aug 09, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4328.IS S4328

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1 cess, and analysis or access to relevant ana2 lytics, for— 

3 (i) the public; 

4 (ii) State, local, Tribal, and territorial 

5 health departments; 

6 (iii) hospitals; or 

7 (iv) Federal agency officials, including 

8 officials within the Department of Health 

9 and Human Services and Centers for Dis10 ease Control and Prevention; and 

11 (B) what is known about whether there 

12 was any impact to, or interruptions in, delivery 

13 of supplies, including personal protective equip14 ment, ventilators, and COVID–19 therapeutics, 

15 to States or other entities resulting from 

16 changes to COVID–19 hospital data reporting 

17 requirements described in paragraph (1). 

18 (b) ACCESS TO REPORTING SYSTEM.—For purposes 

19 of the review required under this section or any other 

20 audit, evaluation, or investigation authorized by law, the 

21 Secretary shall, within 7 days of the date of enactment 

22 of this Act, provide the Comptroller General with direct 

23 access to the systems used for the reporting of information 

24 referred to in this section, including to all information col25 lected, stored, analyzed, processed, or produced in or 


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1 through such systems used for such purposes. For pur2 poses of this subsection, the term ‘‘direct access’’ means 

3 secured access to the information technology systems 

4 maintained by the Department of Health and Human 

5 Services that enables the Comptroller General to inde6 pendently access, view, download and retrieve data from 

7 such systems. 

8 (c) ADDRESSING ISSUES.—Not later than 7 days 

9 after the Comptroller General submits the findings to Con10 gress under subsection (a)(2), the Secretary of Health and 

11 Human Services shall address data quality, sharing, trans12 parency, access, and analysis, and access to relevant ana13 lytics for the public; State, local, Tribal, and territorial 

14 health departments; hospitals; and Federal agency offi15 cials, including officials within the Department of Health 

16 and Human Services and Centers for Disease Control and 

17 Prevention, to fully correct any decreases or delays re18 ported under subsection (a)(2) by the Comptroller General 

19 and ensure that data quality, sharing, transparency, ac20 cess, and analysis or access to relevant analytics are equal 

21 to or better than they were as of July 12, 2020. 

22 (d) REPORT.—Not later than 18 months after the 

23 date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General 

24 shall submit to the Committee on Health, Education, 

25 Labor, and Pensions of the Senate and the Committee on 


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1 Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives, 

2 a report regarding the impact of changes to COVID–19 

3 hospital data reporting requirements initiated by the 

4 White House Coronavirus Task Force and the Depart5 ment of Health and Human Services on July 13, 2020. 

6 In preparing such report, the Comptroller General shall 

7 collect information from relevant stakeholders, as appro8 priate. Such report shall— 

9 (1) detail any known changes or interruptions 

10 in data quality, sharing, transparency, access, and 

11 analysis or access to relevant analytics for the enti12 ties described in subsection (a)(2)(A), including 

13 whether such changes ultimately increased, de14 creased, expedited, or delayed data quality, sharing, 

15 transparency, access, and analysis or access to rel16 evant analytics; 

17 (2) describe challenges faced by hospitals, 

18 States, localities, Indian Tribes (as defined in sec19 tion 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and Edu20 cation Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304)), urban In21 dian organizations (as defined in section 4 of the In22 dian Health Care Improvement Act (25 U.S.C. 

23 1603)), territories, Federal agencies, and the public 

24 resulting from such changes; 


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1 (3) describe the extent to which such changes 

2 may allow for manipulation of the data in a manner 

3 that results in hospitals, States, localities, Indian 

4 Tribes (as defined in section 4 of the Indian Self5 Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 

6 U.S.C. 5304)), urban Indian organizations (as de7 fined in section 4 of the Indian Health Care Im8 provement Act (25 U.S.C. 1603)), territories, Fed9 eral agencies, and the public receiving different in10 formation than what was provided to the Depart11 ment of Health and Human Services; 

12 (4) assess the extent to which such changes in13 creased or decreased the number of hospitals report14 ing data and the completeness and quality of data 

15 reported by hospitals; 

16 (5) determine whether any States deployed the 

17 National Guard to assist in hospital data reporting, 

18 as suggested in communications from the White 

19 House Coronavirus Task Force and the Department 

20 of Health and Human Services on July 13, 2020, 

21 and whether any such deployment had a measurable 

22 effect on the speed, content, or quality of such re23 porting; 

24 (6) describe the decision-making process within 

25 the Department of Health and Human Services that 


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1 led to the changes initiated on July 13, 2020, in2 cluding— 

3 (A) the role of the Centers for Disease 

4 Control and Prevention in such decision-mak5 ing; 

6 (B) any analysis conducted by the Depart7 ment of Health and Human Services or the 

8 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 

9 that assessed the quality and completeness of 

10 different data streams (including the National 

11 Healthcare Safety Network, TeleTracking, data 

12 reported by States to the Protect System of the 

13 Department of Health and Human Services), 

14 prior to July 13, 2020; 

15 (C) any external input into the decision16 making process, including from other Federal 

17 agencies, States, localities, Indian Tribes (as 

18 defined in section 4 of the Indian Self-Deter19 mination and Education Assistance Act (25 

20 U.S.C. 5304)), urban Indian organizations (as 

21 defined in section 4 of the Indian Health Care 

22 Improvement Act (25 U.S.C. 1603)), terri23 tories, or hospitals; 

24 (D) the public health justification for the 

25 changes; and 


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1 (E) any other justification for such 

2 changes; and 

3 (7) assess the process used to address any de4 creases or delays in data quality, sharing, trans5 parency, access to data, and analysis and access to 

6 relevant analytics as required under subsection (c). 

7 (e) INTERIM REPORT.—Not later than 6 months 

8 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller 

9 General shall submit to the Committee on Health, Edu10 cation, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate and the Com11 mittee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Rep12 resentatives an interim report providing information on 

13 initial findings under subsection (d). 

Æ 


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