IV 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 93 
Calling for the establishment of a new unit of the National Institutes of 
Health, to be known as The National Institute of Viral Diseases, to 
increase research in the field of viral disease causes, prevention, and 
treatment. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 3, 2021 
Ms. KAPTUR submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
Committee on Energy and Commerce 
RESOLUTION 
Calling for the establishment of a new unit of the National 
Institutes of Health, to be known as The National Insti-
tute of Viral Diseases, to increase research in the field 
of viral disease causes, prevention, and treatment. 
Whereas the pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory 
syndrome coronavirus 2 (in this preamble referred to as 
‘‘COVID–19’’) is perhaps the greatest threat to the 
health and prosperity of the United States since the 
Great Depression, and COVID–19 has sickened more 
than 26 million people in the United States, has killed 
more than 440,000 people, and has left hundreds of 
thousands of survivors with long-term vascular, neuro-
logical, and other complications; 
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Whereas COVID–19 has exceeded 102,000,000 cases and 
2,100,000 million deaths worldwide; 
Whereas projections, using the optimistic assumption that 
COVID–19 will be controlled by the fall of 2021 by vac-
cines still untried or fully tested, foresee economic costs 
estimated at more than $16 trillion, almost 90 percent of 
the annual gross domestic product of the United States; 
Whereas the toll in illness, death, and direct economic dam-
age caused by COVID–19 justifies a fundamental reorga-
nization and significant expansion of the commitment of 
the Federal Government to fund research on diseases 
caused by viruses and their prevention and treatment; 
Whereas COVID–19 is only one of more than 130 viruses 
known to cause diseases in humans, these diseases sicken 
millions of people in the United States each year, and 
they range from relatively mild to devastating, including 
the common cold, infectious diarrhea, HIV/AIDS, mea-
sles, chicken pox, hepatitis, mumps, cervical cancer, and 
certain forms of leukemia; 
Whereas viruses also pose serious health and economic 
threats to domestic pets, farm animals, and food crops; 
Whereas scientists predict that the toll from viral diseases 
will increase in the future, with new disease-causing vi-
ruses spreading from animals to people due to human in-
trusion into previously wild environments, increased 
international travel, and mass migrations resulting from 
war, famine, and national disasters; 
Whereas despite the scope and seriousness of this problem, 
there is no treatment or cure for most viral infections in 
humans and existing treatments can only relieve symp-
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toms while victims wait and hope that their immune sys-
tem will fight off the virus; 
Whereas vaccines can protect people from some viral disease, 
but no vaccine exists for the most common viral infec-
tions, including the common cold, and vaccines for influ-
enza provide only temporary protection and must be re-
newed annually; 
Whereas viruses called bacteriophages are one of the most 
promising ways of treating anti-biotic resistant bacteria, 
but Federal investment in scientific research in this area 
lags; 
Whereas the House of Representatives recognizes the impor-
tance of biological sciences research and its contributions 
to advancing medical countermeasures for the betterment 
of the American public; and 
Whereas the virus-related funding of the Federal Government 
is fragmented, uncoordinated, and not uniquely focused 
as it is allocated among multiple Federal agencies, in-
cluding the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious 
Diseases, the Centers for Disease Control and Preven-
tions, the Food and Drug Administration, the Health Re-
sources and Services Administration, the United States 
Agency for International Development, and the Fogarty 
International Center of the National Institutes of Health: 
Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That— 
(1) the Director of the National Institutes of 
Health should establish a new research institute of 
the National Institutes of Health, to be known as 
the National Institute of Viral Diseases, to focus, co-
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ordinate, and increase research funding on the 
causes, prevention, and treatment of diseases caused 
by viruses; and 
(2) all existing and future research of this kind 
should be coordinated through the new National In-
stitute of Viral Diseases. 
Æ 
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