I 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5482 

To direct the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs to develop 

a plan for countering emerging and deliberate infectious disease threats, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 12, 2018 

Mr. BACON introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 

on Armed Services 

A BILL 

To direct the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health 

Affairs to develop a plan for countering emerging and 

deliberate infectious disease threats, 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 ‘‘Military Biodefense 

5 Readiness and Protection Act of 2018’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 


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1 (1) The 2014 Ebola crisis demonstrated the 

2 need for the Department of Defense to provide a 

3 prompt and efficient response to an outbreak of a 

4 highly infectious disease. 

5 (2) A future outbreak of an infectious disease 

6 is all but certain and the lessons learned from the 

7 2014 Ebola crisis are directly applicable to the next 

8 crisis. 

9 (3) It is critical that the Department of De10 fense take immediate action to ensure the joint force 

11 is protected from emerging infectious diseases and 

12 the potential deliberate use of infectious diseases 

13 threats, while also being prepared to conduct mili14 tary operations in areas of increased risk as part of 

15 an international response to a future public health 

16 emergency. 

17 (4) To ensure mission effectiveness and force 

18 protection, the Department of Defense should work 

19 closely with the Department of State and the De20 partment of Health and Human Services before, 

21 during, and after an infectious disease outbreak. 

22 SEC. 3. PLAN FOR COUNTERING EMERGING AND DELIB23 ERATE INFECTIOUS DISEASE THREATS. 

24 (a) PLAN.—The Assistant Secretary of Defense for 

25 Health Affairs, in coordination with the Assistant SecVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:57 Apr 13, 2018 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5482.IH H5482

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1 retary of Health and Human Services for Preparedness 

2 and Response, and in consultation with the Director of 

3 the Defense Advanced Research Program Agency, the Di4 rector of the Office of Net Assessment, and the head of 

5 the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental, shall develop 

6 a plan for countering emerging and deliberate infectious 

7 disease threats to ensure joint force health protection and 

8 the ability of the Armed Forces to conduct operations in 

9 an area subject to an emerging infectious disease threat. 

10 (b) MATTERS INCLUDED.— 

11 (1) FOCUS AREAS.—The plan developed under 

12 subsection (a) shall address the following: 

13 (A) Detection and management of patients 

14 with emerging and high-consequence infections 

15 identified in the R&D Blueprint Priority Dis16 ease List of the World Health Organization, in17 cluding novel emerging unknown pathogens 

18 classified as ‘‘Disease X’’. 

19 (B) Improved point-of-care, point-of-need, 

20 and next-generation early detection diagnostics 

21 linked to disease surveillance, response plan22 ning, and information sharing networks. 

23 (C) Evidence-based, best-practice clinical 

24 management protocols that include pre-specified 

25 data collection and analysis plans that are speVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:57 Apr 13, 2018 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5482.IH H5482

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1 cifically tailored for enhanced survival of infec2 tious disease casualties and near-time data gen3 eration in low-resource conditions. 

4 (D) Enhanced infection prevention and 

5 control standards, guidelines, and training, in6 cluding new technologies for protecting health 

7 care workers. 

8 (E) Improved capability for medical evacu9 ation of patients with high-consequence infec10 tions. 

11 (F) Infectious disease emergency response 

12 teams to provide supplemental expertise and ca13 pability for dangerous pathogen infections pa14 tient management and movement in forward en15 vironments or in higher-level military medical 

16 treatment facilities. 

17 (G) Acceleration of research and develop18 ment of medical countermeasures, therapeutics, 

19 and vaccines against high-consequence infec20 tions, including the development of clinical trial 

21 networks capable of generating critical supple22 mental human data in support of licensure ap23 plications administered by the Food and Drug 

24 Administration. 


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1 (H) Coordinated and rapid manufacturing 

2 response capacity and capabilities, using re3 gional, flexible, scalable technologies and facili4 ties, leveraging successful medical counter5 measure development and manufacturing mod6 els implemented in the Department of Health 

7 and Human Services and other departments of 

8 the Federal Government. 

9 (2) SCOPE.—For each area specified in para10 graph (1), the plan shall include— 

11 (A) milestones and actions that can be car12 ried out in both the one-year and five-year 

13 timeframes following the date of the plan, in14 cluding with respect to operations, training, 

15 equipping, research, and technology develop16 ment; 

17 (B) an identification of the element of the 

18 Department of Defense to lead the Department 

19 in carrying out such actions; 

20 (C) the budget levels and priorities to 

21 carry out such actions; and 

22 (D) an identification of opportunities to le23 verage the experience of the Department of 

24 State and the Department of Health and 

25 Human Services. 


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1 (c) SUBMISSION.—Not later than 180 days after the 

2 date of the enactment of this Act, the Assistant Secretary 

3 of Defense shall submit to Congress the plan developed 

4 under subsection (a), including identification of any legis5 lative action or administrative action required to imple6 ment such plan. 

Æ 


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