II 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2567 

To amend the Public Health Service Act to enhance the national strategy 

for combating and eliminating tuberculosis, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 19, 2018 

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

to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

A BILL 

To amend the Public Health Service Act to enhance the 

national strategy for combating and eliminating tuberculosis, 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 ‘‘Comprehensive TB 

5 Elimination Act of 2018’’. 

6 SEC. 2. NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR COMBATING AND ELIMI7 NATING TUBERCULOSIS. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 317E of the Public 

9 Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 247b–6) is amended— 

10 (1) in subsection (a)— 


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1 (A) by striking ‘‘The Secretary’’ and in2 serting the following: 

3 ‘‘(1) GRANTS.—The Secretary’’; and 

4 (B) by adding at the end the following: 

5 ‘‘(2) PRIORITY.—In making grants under this 

6 subsection, the Secretary may give priority to award7 ing grants to State health departments proposing to 

8 focus on the prevention, control, and elimination of 

9 tuberculosis in high-risk populations, including for10 eign-born, homeless, incarcerated, HIV-tuberculosis 

11 coinfected, and medically underserved populations.’’; 

12 (2) in subsection (b)— 

13 (A) in paragraph (3)— 

14 (i) in subparagraph (C), by redesig15 nating clauses (i) and (ii) as subclauses (I) 

16 and (II), respectively, and adjusting the 

17 margins accordingly; and 

18 (ii) by redesignating subparagraphs 

19 (A) through (F) as clauses (i) through (vi), 

20 respectively, and adjusting the margins ac21 cordingly; 

22 (B) by redesignating paragraphs (1) 

23 through (8) as subparagraphs (A) through (H), 

24 respectively, and adjusting the margins accord25 ingly; 


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1 (C) in the matter preceding subparagraph 

2 (A), as so redesignated, by striking ‘‘With re3 spect to’’ and inserting the following: 

4 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—With respect to’’; 

5 (D) by striking subparagraph (B), as so 

6 redesignated, and inserting the following: 

7 ‘‘(B) Research, investigations, experiments, 

8 demonstrations, and studies in the health 

9 sciences that are related to— 

10 ‘‘(i) the development of new thera11 peutics, including vaccines and anti12 microbial drugs, to prevent and treat tu13 berculosis; 

14 ‘‘(ii) novel therapeutics for special 

15 populations, including pediatric popu16 lations, immunosuppressed individuals, and 

17 pregnant women; 

18 ‘‘(iii) the development or testing of 

19 medical diagnostics to detect tuberculosis; 

20 ‘‘(iv) public health interventions to ad21 dress the epidemiology, mechanisms, and 

22 pathogenesis of tuberculosis, such as di23 rectly observed therapy and non-pharma24 ceutical intervention; 


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1 ‘‘(v) methods to enhance detection 

2 and response to outbreaks of tuberculosis, 

3 including multidrug resistant tuberculosis; 

4 and 

5 ‘‘(vi) other relevant research areas.’’; 

6 (E) in subparagraph (C), as so redesig7 nated— 

8 (i) by redesignating clause (vi), as so 

9 redesignated, as clause (vii); 

10 (ii) in clause (v), as so redesignated, 

11 by striking ‘‘; and’’ and inserting ‘‘;’’; and 

12 (iii) by inserting after clause (v), as so 

13 redesignated, the following: 

14 ‘‘(vi) the intensification of efforts to 

15 prevent, detect, and treat latent tuber16 culosis; and’’; 

17 (F) in subparagraph (D), as so redesig18 nated, by inserting before the period the fol19 lowing: ‘‘, including public awareness campaigns 

20 and development of educational, risk, and 

21 media communications.’’; 

22 (G) in subparagraph (F), as so redesig23 nated, by striking ‘‘paragraphs (1) through 

24 (4)’’ and inserting ‘‘subparagraphs (A) through 

25 (D)’’; and 


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1 (H) by adding at the end the following: 

2 ‘‘(2) SELECTION.—In carrying out the activities 

3 described in paragraph (1), the Secretary— 

4 ‘‘(A) is encouraged to give priority to pro5 grammatically relevant research so that new 

6 tools can be utilized in public health practice; 

7 and 

8 ‘‘(B) may seek input from the Biomedical 

9 Advanced Research and Development Authority 

10 in identifying novel candidates to utilize in the 

11 efforts under this subsection to prevent, diag12 nose, and control tuberculosis.’’; 

13 (3) by redesignating subsections (c) through (h) 

14 as subsections (d) through (i), respectively; 

15 (4) by inserting after subsection (b) the fol16 lowing— 

17 ‘‘(c) GRANTS FOR COORDINATION OF PROGRAMS AND

18 SERVICES FOR PREVENTION, DIAGNOSIS, AND TREAT19 MENT.— 

20 ‘‘(1) GRANTS.—The Secretary, acting through 

21 the Administrator of the Health Resources and Serv22 ices Administration, may award grants to State and 

23 local governments and Federally qualified health 

24 centers for coordinating the programs and services 

25 of such States, governments, and centers to ensure 


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1 timely and appropriate prevention, risk-based screen2 ing, diagnosis, and treatment of latent and active tu3 berculosis. 

4 ‘‘(2) DEFINITION.—In this subsection, the term 

5 ‘Federally qualified health center’ has the meaning 

6 given to such term in section 1861(aa) of the Social 

7 Security Act.’’; 

8 (5) in subsections (d), (e), and (f), as so redes9 ignated, by striking ‘‘(a) or (b)’’ each place it ap10 pears and inserting ‘‘(a), (b), or (c)’’; 

11 (6) in subsection (g)(4), as so redesignated, by 

12 adding at the end the following: 

13 ‘‘(C) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—The Sec14 retary is encouraged to make the reports under 

15 subparagraph (A), or other publications rel16 evant to domestic tuberculosis surveillance, pub17 licly available on the Internet website of the 

18 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and 

19 disseminate such information to stakeholders.’’; 

20 (7) in subsection (h), as so redesignated— 

21 (A) in paragraph (1)— 

22 (i) by striking ‘‘research into new 

23 tools under subsection (b)(2)’’ and insert24 ing ‘‘the research, investigations, experi25 ments, demonstrations, and studies in 


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1 health science under subsection (b)(1)(B)’’; 

2 and 

3 (ii) by inserting ‘‘ensuring access to 

4 the products developed as a result of such 

5 research, investigations, experiments, dem6 onstrations, and studies and’’ after ‘‘advice 

7 regarding’’; and 

8 (B) in paragraph (3)— 

9 (i) by redesignating subparagraphs 

10 (D) and (E) as subparagraphs (E) and 

11 (F), respectively; and 

12 (ii) by inserting after subparagraph 

13 (C) the following: 

14 ‘‘(D) members of the Biomedical Advanced 

15 Research and Development Authority;’’; and 

16 (8) in subsection (i)(1)(A), as so redesignated, 

17 by striking ‘‘$200,000,000’’ and all that follows 

18 through the period and inserting ‘‘$142,200,000 for 

19 fiscal year 2018, $195,700,000 for fiscal year 2019, 

20 $225,000,000 for fiscal year 2020, $236,250,000 for 

21 fiscal year 2021, $248,062,500 for fiscal year 2022, 

22 and $260,465,625 for fiscal year 2023.’’. 

23 (b) NIH TUBERCULOSIS ACTIVITIES.—Section 

24 424C(b) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 


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1 285b–7c(b)) is amended by striking paragraph (1) and in2 serting the following: 

3 ‘‘(1) enhancing basic, clinical, and operational 

4 research on tuberculosis, including with respect to— 

5 ‘‘(A) drug-resistant tuberculosis; 

6 ‘‘(B) infection with tuberculosis and la7 tency and progression of tuberculosis; and 

8 ‘‘(C) pediatric tuberculosis;’’. 

9 SEC. 3. GAO STUDY. 

10 Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment 

11 of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States 

12 shall issue a report on the coordination of efforts in the 

13 United States to— 

14 (1) prevent, control, and eliminate tuberculosis; 

15 and 

16 (2) implement the activities under section 317E 

17 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 247b– 

18 6), as amended by this Act, and the National Action 

19 Plan for Combating Multidrug-Resistant Tuber20 culosis, issued in December 2015. 

Æ 


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