Critical Infrastructure Employee Protection Act

To direct the Secretary of Transportation to adopt certain priorities with respect to critical infrastructure employees during the coronavirus pandemic, and for other purposes. 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Critical Infrastructure Employee Protection Act 2. Identification of COVID–19 testing needs of critical infrastructure employees (a) In general The Secretary of Transportation shall— (1) adopt, for use by the Department of Transportation in carrying out response efforts relating to, and operations during, the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID–19) pandemic, the categorization of essential critical infrastructure workers (2) coordinate with the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to support efforts of State and local governments to provide for— (A) priority testing of essential critical infrastructure workers (as such term is used in paragraph (1)) with respect to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID–19); (B) priority access to personal protective equipment, sanitizers, nonmedical-grade facial coverings, and other health-related or protective supplies necessary to safely perform essential critical infrastructure work; and (C) priority access to COIVD–19 vaccinations, based on availability, for essential critical infrastructure workers. (b) Application Nothing in this section requires the provision of priority testing or priority access to personal protective equipment for essential critical infrastructure workers (as such term is used in subsection (a)(1)) to be prioritized over the provision of that testing or access to personal protective equipment or vaccinations for other individuals who are identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or any other relevant Federal, State, or local agency as having a higher priority for that testing or access to personal protective equipment, including— (1) patients; (2) healthcare workers; and (3) first responders. 3. Future health crisis The Secretary of Transportation shall issue such regulations as are necessary to adopt any guidance from the Department of Homeland Security during any future health crisis to account for the transportation sector and ensure the Department takes substantially similar actions regarding prioritization for essential critical infrastructure workers as described in section 2 of this Act.

Summary: Critical Infrastructure Employee Protection Act This bill requires the Department of Transportation (DOT) to support state, local, tribal, and territorial jurisdictions in providing (1) priority COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) testing for essential critical infrastructure employees; (2) priority access to personal protective equipment, sanitizers, face coverings, and health-related or protective supplies necessary to safely perform essential critical infrastructure work; and (3) priority access to COVID-19 vaccinations for such employees. Essential critical infrastructure employees include, but are not limited to, medical and health care, telecommunications, information technology systems, defense, food and agriculture, transportation and logistics, energy, water and wastewater, and law enforcement. DOT must also issue regulations to adopt guidance from the Department of Homeland Security during any future health crisis to account for the transportation sector and ensure it takes substantially similar action regarding prioritization for essential critical infrastructure employees.