II 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 266 

To require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to use authorities 

under the Defense Production Act of 1950 to prioritize contracts necessary to promote pandemic preparedness and response, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

FEBRUARY 4, 2021 

Ms. DUCKWORTH (for herself and Mr. ROUNDS) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs 

A BILL 

To require the Secretary of Health and Human Services 

to use authorities under the Defense Production Act 

of 1950 to prioritize contracts necessary to promote pandemic preparedness and response, 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 Emer5 gency Production Act of 2021’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. PRIORITIZATION OF CONTRACTS NECESSARY TO 

2 PROMOTE PANDEMIC PREPAREDNESS AND 

3 RESPONSE. 

4 (a) IN GENERAL.—Title I of the Defense Production 

5 Act of 1950 (50 U.S.C. 4511 et seq.) is amended by in6 serting after section 101 the following: 

7 ‘‘SEC. 101A. PRIORITIZATION OF CONTRACTS NECESSARY 

8 TO PROMOTE PANDEMIC PREPAREDNESS 

9 AND RESPONSE. 

10 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Health and 

11 Human Services shall— 

12 ‘‘(1) require that performance under contracts 

13 or orders (other than contracts of employment) that 

14 the Secretary deems necessary or appropriate to pro15 mote preparedness for and response to a pandemic 

16 shall take priority over performance under any other 

17 contract or order; 

18 ‘‘(2) for the purpose of assuring such priority, 

19 require acceptance and performance of such con20 tracts or orders in preference to other contracts or 

21 orders by persons the Secretary finds to be capable 

22 of their performance; and 

23 ‘‘(3) allocate materials, services, and facilities in 

24 such manner, upon such conditions, and to such ex25 tent as the Secretary shall deem necessary or appro26 priate to promote the public health. 


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1 ‘‘(b) USE OF AUTHORITY.—The powers granted by 

2 this section shall be used to control the general distribu3 tion of a material in the civilian market if the Secretary 

4 finds that— 

5 ‘‘(1) such material is a scarce and critical mate6 rial essential to public health; and 

7 ‘‘(2) the requirements of public health for such 

8 material cannot otherwise be met without creating a 

9 significant dislocation of the normal distribution of 

10 such material in the civilian market to such a degree 

11 as to create appreciable hardship.’’. 

12 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—The Defense Pro13 duction Act of 1950 (50 U.S.C. 4501 et seq.) is amend14 ed— 

15 (1) in section 102 (50 U.S.C. 4512), in the last 

16 sentence, by inserting ‘‘, 101A,’’ after ‘‘sections 

17 101’’; and 

18 (2) in section 701(e) (50 U.S.C. 4551(e)), by 

19 inserting ‘‘or the Secretary of Health and Human 

20 Services makes a determination to exercise any au21 thority to allocate any material pursuant to section 

22 101A,’’ after ‘‘section 101,’’. 


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1 SEC. 3. REPORTING OF ACTIONS TAKEN UNDER TITLE I OF 

2 DEFENSE PRODUCTION ACT OF 1950 IN FED3 ERAL PROCUREMENT DATA SYSTEM. 

4 Title I of the Defense Production Act of 1950 (50 

5 U.S.C. 4511 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end 

6 the following: 

7 ‘‘SEC. 109. REPORTING OF ACTIONS IN FEDERAL PROCURE8 MENT DATA SYSTEM. 

9 ‘‘Any action taken under section 101 or 101A shall 

10 be reported in the Federal Procurement Data System.’’. 

11 SEC. 4. USE OF DEFENSE PRODUCTION ACT FUND FOR 

12 PANDEMIC PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE. 

13 Section 304 of the Defense Production Act of 1950 

14 (50 U.S.C. 4534) is amended— 

15 (1) by striking subsection (c) and inserting the 

16 following: 

17 ‘‘(c) USE OF FUND.— 

18 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Fund shall be avail19 able to carry out the provisions and purposes of this 

20 title, subject to the limitations set forth in this Act 

21 and in appropriations Acts. 

22 ‘‘(2) DISTRIBUTION.—The Fund manager des23 ignated under subsection (e) shall ensure that 

24 amounts in the Fund are fairly distributed to the of25 fice established under section 305 and all other FedVerDate Sep 11 2014 18:52 Feb 21, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S266.IS S266

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1 eral agencies with responsibility for carrying out the 

2 provisions and purposes of this title.’’; 

3 (2) by striking subsection (e); 

4 (3) by redesignating subsections (f) and (g) as 

5 subsections (e) and (f), respectively; 

6 (4) in subsection (e), as redesignated by para7 graph (3)— 

8 (A) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘; and’’ 

9 and inserting a semicolon; 

10 (B) in paragraph (3), by striking the pe11 riod at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

12 (C) by adding at the end the following: 

13 ‘‘(4) coordinating with other Federal agencies 

14 to ensure that amounts in the Fund are made avail15 able to agencies other than the agency of the Fund 

16 manager, especially for public health programs.’’; 

17 and 

18 (5) by adding at the end the following: 

19 ‘‘(g) INTERAGENCY ROTATION PROGRAM.— 

20 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Health 

21 and Human Services and the Secretary of Defense 

22 shall establish an interagency rotation program that 

23 provides for personnel of the components of the De24 partment of Health and Human Services specified in 

25 paragraph (2) to take rotational assignments within 


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1 the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of De2 fense for Industrial Policy, and for personnel of that 

3 Office to take rotational assignments within such 

4 components, for the purposes of— 

5 ‘‘(A) strengthening working relationships 

6 between agencies; 

7 ‘‘(B) promoting interagency experience; 

8 and 

9 ‘‘(C) ensuring the amounts in the Fund 

10 enable the use of highly tailored economic in11 centives to boost the manufacturing of critical 

12 public health resources that are vital to effective 

13 pandemic preparedness and response in the 

14 United States. 

15 ‘‘(2) COMPONENTS SPECIFIED.—The compo16 nents of the Department of Health and Human 

17 Services specified in this paragraph are the fol18 lowing: 

19 ‘‘(A) The Office of the Assistant Secretary 

20 for Preparedness and Response. 

21 ‘‘(B) The Centers for Disease Control and 

22 Prevention. 

23 ‘‘(C) The National Institutes of Health.’’. 


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1 SEC. 5. ESTABLISHMENT OF OFFICE IN DEPARTMENT OF 

2 HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES TO ADMIN3 ISTER TITLE III OF DEFENSE PRODUCTION 

4 ACT OF 1950. 

5 (a) IN GENERAL.—Title III of the Defense Produc6 tion Act of 1950 (50 U.S.C. 4531 et seq.) is amended by 

7 adding at the end the following: 

8 ‘‘SEC. 305. ESTABLISHMENT OF OFFICE IN DEPARTMENT OF 

9 HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES. 

10 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—There is established in the Office 

11 of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response 

12 of the Department of Health and Human Services an of13 fice (in this section referred to as the ‘office’) to be respon14 sible for planning for the use of, reporting on, and imple15 mentation of authorities of the Department under this 

16 title and other provisions of this Act. 

17 ‘‘(b) PANDEMIC PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE.— 

18 In planning for the use of and implementing authorities 

19 under subsection (a), the office shall use highly targeted 

20 economic incentives authorized under this Act to boost the 

21 manufacturing of critical public health resources that are 

22 vital to effective pandemic preparedness and response. 

23 ‘‘(c) HEAD OF OFFICE.— 

24 ‘‘(1) APPOINTMENT.—The Secretary of Health 

25 and Human Services shall appoint an official of the 


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1 Department, at the level of Deputy Assistant Sec2 retary or the equivalent, to be the head of the office. 

3 ‘‘(2) DEFENSE PRODUCTION ACT COMMITTEE

4 REPRESENTATIVE.—The head of the office ap5 pointed under paragraph (1) shall serve as the rep6 resentative of the Department of Health and Human 

7 Services on the Defense Production Act Committee 

8 under section 722. 

9 ‘‘(d) WAIVER OF CERTAIN REQUIREMENTS.—The re10 quirements of sections 301(d)(1)(A), 302(d)(1), and sub11 paragraphs (B) and (C) of section 303(a)(6) are waived 

12 for purposes of the use of authorities under this Act by 

13 the office. 

14 ‘‘(e) REPORT REQUIRED.—Not less frequently than 

15 annually, the head of the office shall submit to Congress, 

16 and make available on a publicly accessible internet 

17 website of the office, a report that includes— 

18 ‘‘(1) a summary of the work and plans of the 

19 office to expand productive capacity and supply re20 sponsibilities under this Act during the year pre21 ceding submission of the report; 

22 ‘‘(2) an assessment of the elements of the in23 dustrial base and technology base in the United 

24 States; 


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1 ‘‘(3) recommendations for appropriate remedial 

2 actions under this Act or regulations prescribed to 

3 carry out this Act to supply the emerging tech4 nologies needed to achieve robust pandemic pre5 paredness and response; 

6 ‘‘(4) recommendations for legislation, regula7 tions, executive orders, or other action by the Fed8 eral Government necessary to improve the use of the 

9 authorities provided by this Act; 

10 ‘‘(5) a summary of the findings and rec11 ommendations for improving information sharing be12 tween departments, agencies, and independent estab13 lishments of the Federal Government relating to all 

14 aspects of this Act; and 

15 ‘‘(6) any additional findings or recommenda16 tions the office considers appropriate. 

17 ‘‘(f) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

18 are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be 

19 necessary for the establishment of the office.’’. 

20 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 

21 722(b)(1)(A) of the Defense Production Act of 1950 (50 

22 U.S.C. 4567(b)(1)(A)) is amended by inserting ‘‘except as 

23 specified in section 305(c)(2),’’ before ‘‘the head of’’. 


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1 SEC. 6. REPORT ON USE OF DEFENSE PRODUCTION ACT OF 

2 1950 AUTHORITIES TO RESPOND TO COVID–19 

3 PANDEMIC. 

4 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not less frequently than once a 

5 month during the period described in subsection (b), the 

6 Defense Production Act Committee established under sec7 tion 722 of the Defense Production Act of 1950 (50 

8 U.S.C. 4567) shall submit to the appropriate congres9 sional committees and make available on a publicly acces10 sible internet website a report— 

11 (1) describing activities carried out under titles 

12 I and III of that Act related to efforts to respond 

13 to the coronavirus disease 2019 (commonly referred 

14 to as ‘‘COVID–19’’) pandemic; and 

15 (2) assessing the effectiveness of interagency 

16 coordination and the use of resources to respond to 

17 the pandemic. 

18 (b) PERIOD DESCRIBED.—The period described in 

19 this subsection is the period— 

20 (1) beginning on the date of the enactment of 

21 this Act; and 

22 (2) ending on the date on which the national 

23 emergency declared under the National Emergencies 

24 Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) with respect to 

25 COVID–19 terminates. 


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1 (c) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES DE2 FINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘appropriate congres3 sional committees’’ means the Committee on Banking, 

4 Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate and the Com5 mittee on Financial Services of the House of Representa6 tives 

Æ 


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