I 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 8073 
To require the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
to create a standardized method for State, Tribal, and local health 
departments to report to the Centers with respect to COVID–19, and 
for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
AUGUST 21, 2020 
Mr. BEYER (for himself, Ms. SEWELL of Alabama, Mr. CONNOLLY, Mr. 
VARGAS, Ms. PORTER, Mr. TAKANO, Mr. SABLAN, Ms. SHERRILL, Mr. 
PASCRELL, Mr. DEUTCH, and Ms. GABBARD) introduced the following 
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To require the Director of the Centers for Disease Control 
and Prevention to create a standardized method for 
State, Tribal, and local health departments to report 
to the Centers with respect to COVID–19, and for other 
purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Improving COVID– 
19 Data Transparency Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. STANDARDIZED METHOD FOR HEALTH DEPART-
MENT REPORTING . 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 30 days after the 
date of enactment of this Act, the Director of the Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention shall create a stand-
ardized method for State, Tribal, and local health depart-
ments to report to the Centers with respect to COVID– 
19 the following: 
(1) New confirmed and probable cases in the 
respective jurisdiction, including— 
(A) per capita rates by date; 
(B) the 7-day moving average; 
(C) disaggregation of the new cases, if 
known, by whether the cases are part of an 
identifiable outbreak versus community spread; 
and 
(D) 
the 
percentage 
of 
new 
cases 
epidemiologically linked to at least one other 
case. 
(2) Daily hospitalizations of patients in the re-
spective jurisdiction with a confirmed or presumed 
case of COVID–19, including— 
(A) per capita rates by date; and 
(B) the 7-day moving average. 
(3) The percentage of hospital beds occupied by 
such patients. 
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(4) Daily numbers of such patients in the inten-
sive care unit. 
(5) Daily numbers of such patients on ventila-
tors. 
(6) How long such patients have been in the 
hospital. 
(7) Trends in emergency departments of pa-
tients with COVID-like illness and influenza-like ill-
ness. 
(8) Daily numbers of diagnostic and serological 
tests administered for SARS–CoV–2 with respect to 
patients in the respective jurisdiction, disaggregated 
by— 
(A) the type of test; 
(B) the testing positivity rate of each type 
of test, including a 7-day moving average; and 
(C) testing per capita rates by date for 
each type of test, including a 7-day moving av-
erage. 
(9) The sensitivity and specificity of each such 
type of test. 
(10) Daily numbers and percentages of contacts 
traced with respect to patients in the respective ju-
risdiction and the percentages of such contacts who 
know each other. 
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(11) The rate of transmission of SARS–CoV–2 
in the respective jurisdiction. 
(12) Daily numbers of deaths of individuals 
with a confirmed or probable case of COVID–19 and 
per capita rates of such deaths, with a 7-day moving 
average. 
(13) Daily averages, and 7-day moving aver-
ages, of turnaround time for diagnostic tests for 
COVID–19— 
(A) from the time of specimen collection to 
reporting; and 
(B) from the time of specimen collection to 
isolation of confirmed cases. 
(14) Institutions in the respective jurisdiction 
with major outbreaks of COVID–19, including any 
such 
nursing 
homes, 
prisons, 
schools, 
and 
meatpacking plants. 
(15) A list of— 
(A) long-term care and other congregate 
facilities (including homeless shelters and cor-
rectional facilities) and essential workplaces (in-
cluding meatpacking plants) with outbreaks of 
COVID–19 cases; and 
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(B) the numbers of deaths of residents (as 
applicable) and staff of such facilities and work-
places. 
(16) A weekly percentage of residents in the re-
spective jurisdiction wearing masks correctly in pub-
lic indoor settings, based on direct observation or se-
curity camera analysis, by a standard, consistent 
method. 
(17) The weekly percentage of new confirmed 
and probable cases among quarantined contacts. 
(18) Daily numbers of new confirmed and prob-
able cases of COVID–19 among health care workers 
that are not confirmed to have been contracted out-
side of the workplace. 
(b) DISAGGREGATION REQUIRED.—The Director of 
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shall en-
sure that the standardized method of reporting under sub-
section (a) requires the disaggregation of data by gender, 
age, cohort, race, and ethnicity. 
(c) POSTING BY CDC.—The Director of the Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention shall— 
(1) post the information described in para-
graphs (1) through (19) of subsection (a), to the ex-
tent such information is in the possession of the 
Centers, on the public website of the Centers, except 
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that such posting shall exclude any individually iden-
tifiable information; and 
(2) to the extent feasible disaggregate such in-
formation by State, Tribal, and local jurisdiction. 
(d) UPDATES.—The Director of the Centers for Dis-
ease Control and Prevention— 
(1) shall, as appropriate, periodically update the 
method posted under subsection (a); and 
(2) may revise and expand the reporting cat-
egories listed in such subsection. 
(e) STATE.—In this section, the term ‘‘State’’ in-
cludes the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of 
Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, the Virgin Is-
lands, Guam, and American Samoa. 
SEC. 3. TELEVISED REPORTING OF MORBIDITY AND MOR-
TALITY WEEKLY REPORT. 
Each week, the Director of the Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention shall— 
(1) deliver a televised presentation of its Mor-
bidity and Mortality Weekly Report; 
(2) make the presentation open to the media; 
and 
(3) assign a career civil servant to deliver the 
presentation. 
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SEC. 4. MODELING TRANSPARENCY. 
(a) ENSURING REPRODUCIBILITY.—The Secretary of 
Health and Human Services, acting through the Director 
of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shall 
ensure that any COVID–19 modeling that is conducted 
or supported by the Centers is fully reproducible by shar-
ing, to the extent permissible and appropriate, the infor-
mation needed to reproduce such modeling, including any 
modeling code. 
(b) REPORT.—The Secretary of Health and Human 
Services shall enter into an arrangement with the National 
Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to pre-
pare, not later than 6 months after the date of enactment 
of this Act, and publish a report on— 
(1) the sources of data and information relied 
on by entities for COVID–19 modeling; 
(2) the reasons why the Institute for Health 
Metrics, Johns Hopkins University, The COVID 
Tracking Project, and 1Point3Acres decided to start 
COVID–19 modeling; 
(3) the coordination and financial support that 
has been provided by the Federal Government for 
COVID–19 modeling to entites conducting COVID– 
19 modeling that have been widely relied upon; and 
(4) what can be done to ensure the continuation 
and availability of reliable COVID–19 modeling. 
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SEC. 5. IMPROVED CASE REPORTING. 
Section 3001(c)(5) of the Public Health Service Act 
(42 U.S.C. 300jj–11(c)(5)) is amended— 
(1) by redesignating subparagraph (E) as sub-
paragraph (F); 
(2) in subparagraph (F), as redesignated, after 
‘‘subparagraph (D)’’ by inserting ‘‘or (E)’’; and 
(3) after executing the redesignation made by 
paragraph (1), by inserting after subparagraph (D) 
the following: 
‘‘(E) ADDITIONAL
CONDITIONS
OF
CER-
TIFICATION.—Not later than 1 year after the 
date of enactment of the COVID–19 Data 
Transparency Act, the Secretary, through no-
tice and comment rulemaking, shall require, as 
a condition of certification and maintenance of 
certification for programs maintained or recog-
nized under this paragraph, consistent with 
other conditions and requirements under this 
title, that the health information technology de-
veloper or entity provides assurances satisfac-
tory to the Secretary that the health informa-
tion technology is designed to effectuate the 
automated generation and transmission of re-
ports of possible reportable conditions from 
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electronic health records to public health agen-
cies for review and action.’’. 
Æ 
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