H. R. 1532 
One Hundred Tenth Congress 
of the 
United States of America 
AT THE SECOND SESSION 
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Thursday, 
the third day of January, two thousand and eight 
An Act 
To amend the Public Health Service Act with respect to making progress toward 
the goal of eliminating tuberculosis, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Comprehensive 
Tuberculosis Elimination Act of 2008’’. 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for this Act 
is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
TITLE I—DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES IN COORDINA-
TION WITH THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION 
AND OTHER APPROPRIATE AGENCIES 
Subtitle A—National Strategy for Combating and Eliminating Tuberculosis 
Sec. 101. National strategy. 
Subtitle B—Interagency Collaboration 
Sec. 111. Advisory Council for Elimination of Tuberculosis and the Federal Tuber-
culosis Task Force . 
Subtitle C—Evaluation of Public Health Authorities 
Sec. 121. Evaluation of public health authorities. 
Subtitle D—Authorization of Appropriations 
Sec. 131. Authorizations of appropriations. 
TITLE II—NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH 
Sec. 201. Research and development concerning tuberculosis.
H. R. 1532—2 
TITLE 
I—DEPARTMENT 
OF 
HEALTH 
AND HUMAN SERVICES IN COORDINA-
TION WITH THE CENTERS FOR DIS-
EASE 
CONTROL 
AND 
PREVENTION 
AND OTHER APPROPRIATE AGENCIES 
Subtitle A—National Strategy for 
Combating and Eliminating Tuberculosis 
SEC. 101. NATIONAL STRATEGY. 
Section 317E of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 247b– 
6) is amended— 
(1) by striking the heading for the section and inserting 
the following: ‘‘NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR COMBATING AND ELIMI-
NATING TUBERCULOSIS’’; 
(2) by amending subsection (b) to read as follows: 
‘‘(b) RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT; DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS; 
EDUCATION AND TRAINING.—With respect to the prevention, treat-
ment, control, and elimination of tuberculosis, the Secretary may, 
directly or through grants to public or nonprofit private entities, 
carry out the following: 
‘‘(1) Research, with priority given to research and develop-
ment concerning latent tuberculosis infection, strains of tuber-
culosis resistant to drugs, and research concerning cases of 
tuberculosis that affect certain populations at risk for tuber-
culosis. 
‘‘(2) Research and development and related activities to 
develop new tools for the elimination of tuberculosis, including 
drugs, diagnostics, vaccines, and public health interventions, 
such as directly observed therapy and non-pharmaceutical 
intervention, and methods to enhance detection and response 
to outbreaks of tuberculosis, including multidrug resistant 
tuberculosis. The Secretary is encouraged to give priority to 
programmatically relevant research so that new tools can be 
utilized in public health practice. 
‘‘(3) Demonstration projects for— 
‘‘(A) the development of regional capabilities to prevent, 
control, and eliminate tuberculosis and prevent multidrug 
resistant and extensively drug resistant strains of tuber-
culosis; 
‘‘(B) the intensification of efforts to reduce health 
disparities in the incidence of tuberculosis; 
‘‘(C) the intensification of efforts to control tuberculosis 
along the United States-Mexico border and among United 
States-Mexico binational populations, including through 
expansion of the scope and number of programs that— 
‘‘(i) detect and treat binational cases of tuber-
culosis; and 
‘‘(ii) treat high-risk cases of tuberculosis referred 
from Mexican health departments; 
‘‘(D) the intensification of efforts to prevent, detect, 
and treat tuberculosis among foreign-born persons who 
are in the United States;
H. R. 1532—3 
‘‘(E) the intensification of efforts to prevent, detect, 
and treat tuberculosis among populations and settings 
documented as having a high risk for tuberculosis; and 
‘‘(F) tuberculosis detection, control, and prevention. 
‘‘(4) Public information and education activities. 
‘‘(5) Education, training, clinical skills improvement activi-
ties, and workplace exposure prevention for health profes-
sionals, including allied health personnel and emergency 
response employees. 
‘‘(6) Support of Centers to carry out activities under para-
graphs (1) through (4). 
‘‘(7) Collaboration with international organizations and for-
eign countries in carrying out such activities. 
‘‘(8) Develop, enhance, and expand information technologies 
that support tuberculosis control including surveillance and 
database 
management 
systems 
with 
cross-jurisdictional 
capabilities, which shall conform to the standards and 
implementation specifications for such information technologies 
as recommended by the Secretary.’’; and 
(3) in subsection (d), by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(3) DETERMINATION OF AMOUNT OF NONFEDERAL CONTRIBU-
TIONS.— 
‘‘(A) PRIORITY.—In awarding grants under subsection 
(a) or (b), the Secretary shall give highest priority to an 
applicant that provides assurances that the applicant will 
contribute non-Federal funds to carry out activities under 
this section, which may be provided directly or through 
donations from public or private entities and may be in 
cash or in kind, including equipment or services. 
‘‘(B) FEDERAL AMOUNTS NOT TO BE INCLUDED AS CON-
TRIBUTIONS.—Amounts provided by the Federal Govern-
ment, or services assisted or subsidized to any significant 
extent by the Federal Government, may not be included 
in determining the amount of non-Federal contributions 
as described in subparagraph (A).’’. 
Subtitle B—Interagency Collaboration 
SEC. 111. ADVISORY COUNCIL FOR ELIMINATION OF TUBERCULOSIS 
AND THE FEDERAL TUBERCULOSIS TASK FORCE. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 317E(f) of the Public Health Service 
Act (42 U.S.C. 247b–6(f)) is amended— 
(1) by redesignating paragraph (5) as paragraph (6); and 
(2) by striking paragraphs (2) through (4), and inserting 
the following: 
‘‘(2) DUTIES.—The Council shall provide advice and rec-
ommendations regarding the elimination of tuberculosis to the 
Secretary. In addition, the Council shall, with respect to elimi-
nating such disease, provide to the Secretary and other appro-
priate Federal officials advice on— 
‘‘(A) coordinating the activities of the Department of 
Health and Human Services and other Federal agencies 
that relate to the disease, including activities under sub-
section (b); 
‘‘(B) responding rapidly and effectively to emerging 
issues in tuberculosis; and