I 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 8444 

To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to enter into an 

agreement with the National Academy of Medicine under which the 

National Academy agrees to conduct a one-year study assessing the 

effectiveness of current vital statistics reporting and data sharing between 

State, local, and Federal agencies, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 30, 2020 

Mr. TAYLOR (for himself and Ms. SHALALA) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to 

enter into an agreement with the National Academy of 

Medicine under which the National Academy agrees to 

conduct a one-year study assessing the effectiveness of 

current vital statistics reporting and data sharing between State, local, and Federal agencies, 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; FINDINGS. 

4 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 

5 ‘‘Vital Standardization of Thoughtful Administrative 


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1 Techniques and Statistics Act of 2020’’ or the ‘‘Vital 

2 STATS Act of 2020’’. 

3 (b) FINDINGS.—The Congress makes the following 

4 findings: 

5 (1) Pandemic and highly infectious diseases 

6 have the ability to rapidly cross international and 

7 State boundaries, can infect millions of individuals 

8 in the United States, and have the potential to se9 verely disrupt interstate commerce. 

10 (2) During the outbreak of COVID–19, the dis11 ease substantially affected interstate commerce and 

12 touched all 50 States, the District of Columbia, the 

13 Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States 

14 Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the 

15 Northern Mariana Islands. 

16 (3) The COVID–19 pandemic in the United 

17 States highlights the necessity of accurate and time18 ly vital statistics and death reporting for a success19 ful public health response. 

20 (4) Variations between means and methods of 

21 vital statistics reporting between State, local, and 

22 Federal entities can create administrative hurdles, 

23 including potential backlogs, and could hamper pub24 lic health response efforts. 


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1 (5) In order for the Nation to combat future 

2 health emergencies, to improve our general under3 standing of health problems in the United States, 

4 and to ensure the sharing of timely, accurate health 

5 information, the Federal Government, State govern6 ments, and local units of government must improve 

7 their means of coordinating and sharing health in8 formation and vital statistics. 

9 SEC. 2. STUDY ON EFFECTIVENESS OF VITAL STATISTICS 

10 REPORTING. 

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

12 Human Services shall enter into an agreement with the 

13 National Academy of Medicine under which the National 

14 Academy agrees to conduct a one-year study assessing the 

15 effectiveness of current vital statistics reporting and data 

16 sharing between State, local, and Federal agencies and the 

17 degree to which there is divergence between State, local, 

18 and Federal vital statistics reporting. 

19 (b) REPORT.—The agreement entered into under 

20 subsection (a) shall require the National Academy of Med21 icine to, not later 1 year after the date on which the agree22 ment is entered into, to submit to Congress a report con23 taining the findings of the study conducted pursuant to 

24 such subsection. Such report shall include recommenda25 tions with respect to— 


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1 (1) coordination and standardization of State, 

2 local, and Federal vital statistics reporting methods, 

3 including the efficiency, effectiveness, and trans4 parency of such reporting; and 

5 (2) the feasibility of setting national standards 

6 for death reporting and collecting vital statistics. 

Æ 


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