I 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 8605 

To authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services, in consultation 

with the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to award 

grants to certain entities to conduct research on, or to establish, wastewater surveillance and other early warning systems, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

OCTOBER 16, 2020 

Mr. KIM (for himself and Mr. BILIRAKIS) introduced the following bill; which 

was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services, 

in consultation with the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to award grants to certain 

entities to conduct research on, or to establish, wastewater surveillance and other early warning systems, 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 ‘‘Community Readiness 

5 Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. GRANTS FOR RESEARCH ON, OR ESTABLISHING, 

2 WASTEWATER SURVEILLANCE AND OTHER 

3 EARLY WARNING SYSTEMS. 

4 Subtitle C of title XVIII of the Public Health Service 

5 Act (42 U.S.C. 300hh–31 et seq.) is amended by adding 

6 at the end the following: 

7 ‘‘SEC. 2823. GRANTS FOR RESEARCH ON, OR ESTABLISHING, 

8 WASTEWATER SURVEILLANCE AND OTHER 

9 EARLY WARNING SYSTEMS. 

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

11 Human Services, in consultation with the Administrator 

12 of the Environmental Protection Agency, may award 

13 grants to eligible entities to conduct research on, or to es14 tablish, a wastewater surveillance or other early warning 

15 system through— 

16 ‘‘(1) wastewater testing; 

17 ‘‘(2) temperature tracking to monitor axillary 

18 body temperature; and 

19 ‘‘(3) other methods deemed permissible by the 

20 Secretary and Administrator. 

21 ‘‘(b) PERMISSIBLE USES OF FUNDS.—A grant recipi22 ent under this section may use grant funds to support the 

23 activities described in subsection (a), including by— 

24 ‘‘(1) paying for data-centric services that can 

25 detect infectious diseases before positive cases or 

26 hospitalizations; 


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1 ‘‘(2) entering into contracts with private compa2 nies to implement early warning detection methods; 

3 or 

4 ‘‘(3) funding research to study early warning 

5 detection methods. 

6 ‘‘(c) PRIORITY.—In selecting grant recipients under 

7 this section, the Secretary shall give priority to eligible en8 tities proposing to conduct research on, or to establish, 

9 wastewater surveillance or other early warning system in 

10 one or more areas that— 

11 ‘‘(1) are (or include one or more areas that are) 

12 a hot spot; or 

13 ‘‘(2) a higher percentage of vulnerable popu14 lations than the national average. 

15 ‘‘(d) FEDERAL PRIVACY REQUIREMENTS.—Nothing 

16 in this section shall be construed to supersede any Federal 

17 privacy or confidentiality requirement, including the regu18 lations promulgated under section 264(c) of the Health 

19 Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (42 

20 U.S.C. 1320d–2 note) and section 543 of the Public 

21 Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 290dd–2). 

22 ‘‘(e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

23 ‘‘(1) The term ‘Administrator’ means the Ad24 ministrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. 

25 ‘‘(2) The term ‘eligible entity’ means— 


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1 ‘‘(A) a State government; 

2 ‘‘(B) a local government; 

3 ‘‘(C) a Tribal government; 

4 ‘‘(D) an entity that conducts health re5 search; and 

6 ‘‘(E) an academic institution. 

7 ‘‘(3) The term ‘emergency period’ has the 

8 meaning given to that term in section 1135(g)(1)(B) 

9 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1320b– 

10 5(g)(1)(B)). 

11 ‘‘(4) The term ‘hot spot’ means a geographic 

12 area where the rate of infection with a particular 

13 pathogen exceeds the national average. 

14 ‘‘(5) The term ‘local government’ means a 

15 county, municipality, town, township, village, parish, 

16 borough, or other unit of general local government. 

17 ‘‘(6) The term ‘Secretary’ means the Secretary 

18 of Health and Human Services. 

19 ‘‘(7) The term ‘State’ means each of the several 

20 States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth 

21 of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Com22 monwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the 

23 Virgin Islands, and the Trust Territory of the Pa24 cific Islands. 


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1 ‘‘(8) The term ‘vulnerable population’ means 

2 people at increased risk of severe illness. 

3 ‘‘(f) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—To 

4 carry out this section, there are authorized to be appro5 priated $18,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2021 through 

6 2025.’’. 

Æ 


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