I 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 8482 

To require the Secretary of Agriculture to support the efforts of State and 

local governments to provide for priority testing of essential critical 

food and agriculture workers with respect to COVID–19, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

OCTOBER 1, 2020 

Mr. CRAWFORD (for himself, Mr. KELLY of Mississippi, and Mr. LAMALFA) 

introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture 

A BILL 

To require the Secretary of Agriculture to support the efforts 

of State and local governments to provide for priority 

testing of essential critical food and agriculture workers 

with respect to COVID–19, 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 ‘‘American Food Work5 ers Protection Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. IDENTIFICATION OF COVID–19 TESTING NEEDS OF 

2 CRITICAL FOOD AND AGRICULTURE WORK3 ERS. 

4 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Agriculture 

5 shall— 

6 (1) adopt, for use by the Department of Agri7 culture in carrying out response efforts relating to, 

8 and operations during, the COVID–19 pandemic, 

9 the categorization of food and agriculture workers as 

10 ‘‘essential critical infrastructure workers’’ identified 

11 in the Guidance on the Essential Critical Infrastruc12 ture Workforce published by the Department of 

13 Homeland Security on March 28, 2020 (or a subse14 quent version of that guidance); and 

15 (2) coordinate with the Director of the Centers 

16 for Disease Control and Prevention and the Admin17 istrator of the Federal Emergency Management 

18 Agency to support efforts of State and local govern19 ments to provide for— 

20 (A) priority testing of essential critical in21 frastructure workers (as such term is used in 

22 paragraph (1)) with respect to the COVID–19 

23 pandemic; 

24 (B) priority access to personal protective 

25 equipment, sanitizers, nonmedical-grade facial 

26 coverings, and other health-related or protective 


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1 supplies necessary to safely perform essential 

2 critical infrastructure work; and 

3 (C) ensure that the Federal agency respon4 sible for the distribution of a vaccine for 

5 COVID–19 in the United States prioritizes es6 sential critical infrastructure workers (as such 

7 term is used in paragraph (1)) for inoculation 

8 with that vaccine. 

9 (b) APPLICATION.—Nothing in this section requires 

10 the provision of priority testing or priority access to per11 sonal protective equipment for essential critical infrastruc12 ture workers (as such term is used in subsection (a)(1)) 

13 to be prioritized over the provision of that testing or access 

14 to personal protective equipment for other individuals who 

15 are identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Pre16 vention or any other relevant Federal, State, or local agen17 cy as having a higher priority for that testing or access 

18 to personal protective equipment, including— 

19 (1) patients; 

20 (2) healthcare workers; and 

21 (3) first responders. 

Æ 


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