I 
115TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5482 
To direct the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs to develop 
a plan for countering emerging and deliberate infectious disease threats, 
and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 12, 2018 
Mr. BACON introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 
on Armed Services 
A BILL 
To direct the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health 
Affairs to develop a plan for countering emerging and 
deliberate infectious disease threats, and for other pur-
poses. 
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 ‘‘Military Biodefense 
Readiness and Protection Act of 2018’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
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(1) The 2014 Ebola crisis demonstrated the 
need for the Department of Defense to provide a 
prompt and efficient response to an outbreak of a 
highly infectious disease. 
(2) A future outbreak of an infectious disease 
is all but certain and the lessons learned from the 
2014 Ebola crisis are directly applicable to the next 
crisis. 
(3) It is critical that the Department of De-
fense take immediate action to ensure the joint force 
is protected from emerging infectious diseases and 
the potential deliberate use of infectious diseases 
threats, while also being prepared to conduct mili-
tary operations in areas of increased risk as part of 
an international response to a future public health 
emergency. 
(4) To ensure mission effectiveness and force 
protection, the Department of Defense should work 
closely with the Department of State and the De-
partment of Health and Human Services before, 
during, and after an infectious disease outbreak. 
SEC. 3. PLAN FOR COUNTERING EMERGING AND DELIB-
ERATE INFECTIOUS DISEASE THREATS. 
(a) PLAN.—The Assistant Secretary of Defense for 
Health Affairs, in coordination with the Assistant Sec-
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retary of Health and Human Services for Preparedness 
and Response, and in consultation with the Director of 
the Defense Advanced Research Program Agency, the Di-
rector of the Office of Net Assessment, and the head of 
the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental, shall develop 
a plan for countering emerging and deliberate infectious 
disease threats to ensure joint force health protection and 
the ability of the Armed Forces to conduct operations in 
an area subject to an emerging infectious disease threat. 
(b) MATTERS INCLUDED.— 
(1) FOCUS AREAS.—The plan developed under 
subsection (a) shall address the following: 
(A) Detection and management of patients 
with emerging and high-consequence infections 
identified in the R&D Blueprint Priority Dis-
ease List of the World Health Organization, in-
cluding novel emerging unknown pathogens 
classified as ‘‘Disease X’’. 
(B) Improved point-of-care, point-of-need, 
and next-generation early detection diagnostics 
linked to disease surveillance, response plan-
ning, and information sharing networks. 
(C) Evidence-based, best-practice clinical 
management protocols that include pre-specified 
data collection and analysis plans that are spe-
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cifically tailored for enhanced survival of infec-
tious disease casualties and near-time data gen-
eration in low-resource conditions. 
(D) Enhanced infection prevention and 
control standards, guidelines, and training, in-
cluding new technologies for protecting health 
care workers. 
(E) Improved capability for medical evacu-
ation of patients with high-consequence infec-
tions. 
(F) Infectious disease emergency response 
teams to provide supplemental expertise and ca-
pability for dangerous pathogen infections pa-
tient management and movement in forward en-
vironments or in higher-level military medical 
treatment facilities. 
(G) Acceleration of research and develop-
ment of medical countermeasures, therapeutics, 
and vaccines against high-consequence infec-
tions, including the development of clinical trial 
networks capable of generating critical supple-
mental human data in support of licensure ap-
plications administered by the Food and Drug 
Administration. 
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(H) Coordinated and rapid manufacturing 
response capacity and capabilities, using re-
gional, flexible, scalable technologies and facili-
ties, leveraging successful medical counter-
measure development and manufacturing mod-
els implemented in the Department of Health 
and Human Services and other departments of 
the Federal Government. 
(2) SCOPE.—For each area specified in para-
graph (1), the plan shall include— 
(A) milestones and actions that can be car-
ried out in both the one-year and five-year 
timeframes following the date of the plan, in-
cluding with respect to operations, training, 
equipping, research, and technology develop-
ment; 
(B) an identification of the element of the 
Department of Defense to lead the Department 
in carrying out such actions; 
(C) the budget levels and priorities to 
carry out such actions; and 
(D) an identification of opportunities to le-
verage the experience of the Department of 
State and the Department of Health and 
Human Services. 
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(c) SUBMISSION.—Not later than 180 days after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, the Assistant Secretary 
of Defense shall submit to Congress the plan developed 
under subsection (a), including identification of any legis-
lative action or administrative action required to imple-
ment such plan. 
Æ 
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