IB 

Union Calendar No. 215 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 931 

[Report No. 115–301] 

To require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop a 

voluntary registry to collect data on cancer incidence among firefighters. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 7, 2017 

Mr. COLLINS of New York (for himself, Mr. PASCRELL, Mr. AMODEI, Mr. 

BARLETTA, Mr. BARR, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Ms. BONAMICI, Mr. BOST, 

Mrs. BROOKS of Indiana, Ms. BROWNLEY of California, Mrs. BUSTOS, 

Mrs. COMSTOCK, Mr. CONNOLLY, Mr. DEFAZIO, Ms. DEGETTE, Mr. 

DONOVAN, Mr. ELLISON, Mr. ENGEL, Ms. ESTY, Mr. FOSTER, Mr. FASO, 

Mr. GARAMENDI, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. HECK, Mr. JOYCE of Ohio, Ms. 

KAPTUR, Mr. KATKO, Mr. KILMER, Mr. KIND, Mr. KING of New York, 

Mr. KNIGHT, Ms. KUSTER of New Hampshire, Mr. LEVIN, Mr. LIPINSKI, 

Mr. LOBIONDO, Mr. LOEBSACK, Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New 

York, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. MEEHAN, Mr. MOULTON, 

Mr. NADLER, Mr. NOLAN, Mr. NORCROSS, Ms. NORTON, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. 

PERLMUTTER, Mr. PETERSON, Ms. PINGREE, Mr. POLIQUIN, Mr. 

RENACCI, Miss RICE of New York, Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky, Mr. RYAN

of Ohio, Mr. SERRANO, Ms. SHEA-PORTER, Mr. SHUSTER, Ms. SINEMA, 

Mr. SIRES, Ms. SLAUGHTER, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Mr. SWALWELL

of California, Ms. TENNEY, Mr. TONKO, Ms. TSONGAS, Mr. VALADAO, 

Mrs. WALORSKI, Mr. WALZ, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Mrs. WATSON

COLEMAN, Mr. YARMUTH, Mr. YOUNG of Alaska, Mr. ZELDIN, Mr. 

LANCE, Mr. SMITH of Washington, Mr. SEAN PATRICK MALONEY of New 

York, Mr. QUIGLEY, Mr. GOTTHEIMER, and Ms. STEFANIK) introduced 

the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and 

Commerce 


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SEPTEMBER 8, 2017 

Additional sponsors: Mr. REED, Ms. VELA ́ZQUEZ, Mr. MACARTHUR, Mr. 

CURBELO of Florida, Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN, Mr. LANGEVIN, Mr. LYNCH, 

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, Mr. COSTELLO of Pennsylvania, Mr. 

FITZPATRICK, Ms. DELAURO, Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania, Ms. 

DELBENE, Mr. RASKIN, Mr. JONES, Mr. YOUNG of Iowa, Mr. KELLY of 

Pennsylvania, Ms. SPEIER, Ms. ROSEN, Mr. MCKINLEY, Mr. BROWN of 

Maryland, Mr. WITTMAN, Mr. TURNER, Mr. STEWART, Mr. HOYER, Mr. 

CICILLINE, Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas, Mr. MARSHALL, Mr. 

DESAULNIER, Ms. LOFGREN, Mrs. DEMINGS, Mr. TAKANO, Mr. TAYLOR, 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN, Mr. CARBAJAL, Mrs. LOVE, Mr. LARSON of Connecticut, Mr. BISHOP of Utah, Mr. CLAY, Mr. REICHERT, Mr. SCHNEIDER, Mr. RUPPERSBERGER, Mr. GUTHRIE, Mr. STIVERS, Mr. BRADY of 

Pennsylvania, Mr. GALLEGO, Mr. COMER, Mr. GARRETT, Mr. SARBANES, 

Mr. DELANEY, Mr. GRAVES of Missouri, Mr. HUFFMAN, Mr. CARSON of 

Indiana, Mr. HIGGINS of New York, Mr. CAPUANO, Mr. THOMPSON of 

Pennsylvania, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. JENKINS of West Virginia, Ms. 

BORDALLO, Mr. O’HALLERAN, Mr. MCEACHIN, Mr. PETERS, Mr. 

CA ́RDENAS, Ms. ESHOO, Mr. LATTA, Mr. TIPTON, Ms. MATSUI, Mrs. 

MURPHY of Florida, Mr. HUDSON, Mr. DENT, Mr. KENNEDY, Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER, Mr. LOWENTHAL, Ms. MCSALLY, Mr. BRENDAN F. 

BOYLE of Pennsylvania, Mr. MITCHELL, Mr. SOTO, Mr. GALLAGHER, Ms. 

SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. LAWSON of Florida, Mr. UPTON, Mr. GRIFFITH, Mr. 

VISCLOSKY, Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio, Ms. WILSON of Florida, Mr. COFFMAN, Mr. COURTNEY, Mr. GONZALEZ of Texas, Mrs. MCMORRIS RODGERS, Mr. POLIS, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Ms. MENG, Mr. SMUCKER, Ms. 

FRANKEL of Florida, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. GOSAR, Ms. MOORE, 

Mr. SESSIONS, Ms. HANABUSA, Mr. KHANNA, Mr. ISSA, Mr. POE of 

Texas, Mr. CORREA, Mr. KEATING, Mr. EMMER, Mr. BEN RAY LUJA ́N

of New Mexico, Ms. JUDY CHU of California, Mr. CALVERT, Mr. HOLLINGSWORTH, and Mr. EVANS


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SEPTEMBER 8, 2017 

Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole 

House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed 

[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 

[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on February 7, 2017] 


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A BILL 

To require the Secretary of Health and Human Services 

to develop a voluntary registry to collect data on cancer 

incidence among firefighters. 


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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 ‘‘Firefighter Cancer Reg5 istry Act of 2017’’. 

6 SEC. 2. POPULATION-BASED REGISTRY FOR FIREFIGHTER 

7 CANCER INCIDENCE. 

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

9 Human Services, acting through the Director of the Centers 

10 for Disease Control and Prevention, shall develop and 

11 maintain, directly or through a grant or cooperative agree12 ment, a voluntary registry of firefighters (referred to in this 

13 section as the ‘‘Firefighter Registry’’) to collect relevant his14 tory and occupational information of such firefighters that 

15 can be linked to available cancer registry data collected by 

16 existing State cancer registries. 

17 (b) USE OF FIREFIGHTER REGISTRY.—The Firefighter 

18 Registry shall be used for the following purposes: 

19 (1) To establish and improve collection infra20 structure and activities related to the nationwide 

21 monitoring of the incidence of cancer among fire22 fighters. 

23 (2) To collect, consolidate, store, and make pub24 licly available epidemiological information related to 

25 cancer incidence and trends among firefighters. 


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1 (c) RELEVANT DATA.— 

2 (1) IN GENERAL.—In carrying out the voluntary 

3 data collection for purposes of inclusion under the 

4 Firefighter Registry, the Secretary should seek to in5 clude the following information: 

6 (A) Identifiable information from a rep7 resentative sample size, as determined by the 

8 Secretary under subsection (d)(2)(A), of volun9 teer, paid-on-call, and career firefighters, inde10 pendent of cancer status or diagnosis. 

11 (B) With respect to individual risk factors 

12 and work history of firefighters, available infor13 mation on— 

14 (i) basic demographic information, in15 cluding the age of the firefighter involved; 

16 (ii) a listing of status of the firefighter 

17 as either volunteer, paid-on-call, or career 

18 firefighter; 

19 (iii) the number of years on the job 

20 and a detailing of additional employment 

21 experience that was either performed con22 currently alongside firefighting service, be23 fore, or anytime thereafter; 

24 (iv)(I) a measure of the number of fire 

25 incidents attended as well as the type of fire 


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1 incidents (such as residential house fire or 

2 commercial fire); or 

3 (II) in the case of a firefighter for 

4 whom information on such number and 

5 type is not available, an estimate of such 

6 number and type based on the method devel7 oped under subsection (d)(2); 

8 (v) a list of additional risk factors, in9 cluding smoking or drug use, as determined 

10 relevant by the Secretary; and 

11 (vi) other physical examination and 

12 medical history information relevant to a 

13 cancer incidence study or general health of 

14 firefighters not available in existing cancer 

15 registries. 

16 (C) Any additional information that is 

17 deemed necessary by the Secretary. 

18 (2) DIAGNOSES AND TREATMENT.—In carrying 

19 out the data collection for purposes of inclusion under 

20 the Firefighter Registry, with respect to diagnoses and 

21 treatment of firefighters diagnosed with cancer, the 

22 Secretary shall enable the Firefighter Registry to link 

23 to State-based cancer registries, for a purpose de24 scribed by clause (vi) or (vii) of section 399B(c)(2)(D) 


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1 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 

2 280e(c)(2)(D)), to obtain information on— 

3 (A) administrative information, including 

4 date of diagnoses and source of information; and 

5 (B) pathological data characterizing the 

6 cancer, including cancer site, state of disease 

7 (pursuant to Staging Guide), incidence, and 

8 type of treatment. 

9 (d) METHODS.— 

10 (1) IN GENERAL.—For the purposes described in 

11 subsection (b), the Secretary is authorized to incor12 porate questions into public health surveys, question13 naires, and other databases. 

14 (2) REQUIRED STRATEGY.—The Secretary shall 

15 develop a strategy, working in consultation with the 

16 stakeholders identified in subsection (e), to maximize 

17 participation in the Firefighter Registry established 

18 under this Act. At minimum, the strategy shall in19 clude the following: 

20 (A) Identified minimum participation tar21 gets for volunteer, paid-on-call, and career fire22 fighters. 

23 (B) A strategy for increasing awareness of 

24 the Firefighter Registry and maximizing partici25 pation among volunteer, paid-on-call, and career 


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1 firefighters to meet minimum participation tar2 gets. 

3 (C) Additional steps that may be required 

4 to ensure the equitable representation of groups 

5 identified in paragraph (5). 

6 (D) Information on how the Secretary will 

7 store data described in subsection (c)(1) and pro8 vide links to relevant health information de9 scribed in subsection (c)(2). 

10 (E) Working in consultation with the ex11 perts described in subsection (e), a reliable and 

12 standardized method for estimating the number 

13 of fire incidents attended by a firefighter as well 

14 as the type of fire incident so attended in the 

15 case such firefighter is unable to provide such in16 formation. 

17 (3) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—The Secretary shall 

18 submit the strategy described in paragraph (2) to the 

19 Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of 

20 Representatives and the Committee on Health, Edu21 cation, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate not later 

22 than 30 days after the date of the completion of the 

23 strategy. 

24 (4) GUIDANCE FOR INCLUSION AND MAINTE25 NANCE OF DATA ON FIREFIGHTERS.—The Secretary 


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1 shall develop, in consultation with the stakeholders 

2 identified in subsection (e), State health agencies, 

3 State departments of homeland security, and volun4 teer, paid-on-call, combination, and career fire5 fighting agencies, a strategy for inclusion of fire6 fighters in the registry that are representative of the 

7 general population of firefighters, that outlines the fol8 lowing: 

9 (A) How new information about firefighters 

10 will be submitted to the Firefighter Registry for 

11 inclusion. 

12 (B) How information about firefighters will 

13 be maintained and updated in the Firefighter 

14 Registry over time. 

15 (C) A method for estimating the number of 

16 fire incidents attended by a firefighter as well as 

17 the type of fire incident so attended in the case 

18 such firefighter is unable to provide such infor19 mation. 

20 (D) Further information, as deemed nec21 essary by the Secretary. 

22 (5) ENSURING REPRESENTATION OF UNDERREP23 RESENTED GROUPS IN REGISTRY.—In carrying out 

24 this section, the Secretary shall take such measures as 

25 the Secretary deems appropriate to encourage the inVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:43 Sep 08, 2017 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H931.RH H931

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1 clusion of data on minority, female, and volunteer 

2 firefighters in the Firefighter Registry established 

3 under this section. 

4 (e) CONSULTATION.—The Secretary shall, on a regular 

5 basis, seek feedback regarding the utility of the Firefighter 

6 Registry established under this section and ways the Fire7 fighter Registry can be improved from non-Federal experts 

8 in the following areas: 

9 (1) Public health experts with experience in de10 veloping and maintaining cancer registries. 

11 (2) Epidemiologists with experience in studying 

12 cancer incidence. 

13 (3) Clinicians with experience in diagnosing and 

14 treating cancer incidence. 

15 (4) Active and retired volunteer, paid-on-call, 

16 and career firefighters as well as relevant national 

17 fire and emergency response organizations. 

18 (f) RESEARCH AVAILABILITY.—The Secretary shall de19 velop and make public a process for de-identifying data 

20 from the Firefighter Registry and making such data avail21 able without a fee for research or other purposes. Such proc22 ess shall provide that such data shall be made available for 

23 such research purposes only if there is an agreement to 

24 make findings, journal articles, or other print or web-based 


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1 publications derived from such research public or available 

2 to the relevant stakeholders identified in subsection (e). 

3 (g) PRIVACY.—In carrying out this Act, the Secretary 

4 shall apply to the Firefighter Registry developed under sub5 section (a) data security provisions and privacy standards 

6 that comply with the best practices of the Centers for Dis7 ease Control and Prevention and provide for data privacy 

8 and security standards similar to those in the HIPAA pri9 vacy regulation, as defined in section 1180(b)(3) of the So10 cial Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1320d–9(b)(3)). 

11 (h) AUTHORIZATION OF FUNDS.—To carry out this 

12 section, there are authorized to be appropriated $2,500,000 

13 for each of the fiscal years 2018 through 2022. 


asabaliauskas on DSKBBXCHB2PROD with BILLS

asabaliauskas on DSKBBXCHB2PROD with BILLS
Union Calendar No. 215 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 931 

[Report No. 115–301] 

A BILL 

To require the Secretary of Health and Human 

data on cancer incidence among firefighters. Services to develop a voluntary registry to collect 

SEPTEMBER 8, 2017 

Reported with an amendment, committed to the Comand ordered to be printed mittee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, 


asabaliauskas on DSKBBXCHB2PROD with BILLS