To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to develop a plan to improve surveillance with respect to diseases that are viral pandemic threats, and for other purposes.

To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to develop a plan to improve surveillance with respect to diseases that are viral pandemic threats, and for other purposes. 1. Improved surveillance with respect to diseases that are viral pandemic threats (a) Plan Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (in this section referred to as the Secretary (1) rapid detection of the spread of such diseases; (2) effective sharing of surveillance information, subject to privacy protections for individually identifiable information under applicable law; and (3) rapid and coordinated response to such diseases by Federal, State, Tribal, territorial, and local public health agencies. (b) Pilot program (1) In general The Secretary, in coordination with development of the plan under subsection (a), shall carry out a competitive pilot program in which the Secretary awards grant to entities for projects— (A) to assesses the state of early detection of diseases that are viral pandemic threats to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the current methods, policies, and procedures for such early detection; and (B) to optimize such early detection through development and implementation of innovative approaches to the development of rapid or instant tests, methods, policies, and procedures over the 4-month period following the date of enactment of this Act. (2) Announcement The Secretary shall announce that— (A) applications for grants under this subsection will be accepted for 60 days following the announcement; and (B) the grant recipients will be selected within 60 days of the end of the acceptance period described in subparagraph (A). (3) Duration of projects The duration of a project funded under this section shall not exceed 6 months unless the grant recipient receives written approval from the Secretary for the project to exceed 6 months. (4) Collaboration Grant recipients under this section may not collaborate on projects funded under this section unless, before approving the collaboration, the Secretary— (A) determines that such collaboration will further the objectives described in paragraph (1); and (B) gives notice to the congressional committees of jurisdiction that such collaboration will occur. (5) Reporting by grantees Not later than 3 months after completing a project funded under this section, a grant recipient shall submit a report to the Secretary on the results of the project. (6) Report to Congress Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit a report, including a classified annex, to the Congress on the results of the pilot program under this subsection. (c) Authorization of appropriations To carry out this section, there is authorized to be appropriated $30,000,000.

Summary: This bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to take specified actions related to surveillance of viral pandemic threats. Specifically, HHS must (1) award competitive, short-term grants to assess and optimize approaches to early detection of viral pandemic threats; and (2) report to Congress on the results of this program. The CDC must develop a plan to improve surveillance of viral pandemic threats that includes rapid detection and effective information sharing with respect to such diseases.