I 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 8482 
To require the Secretary of Agriculture to support the efforts of State and 
local governments to provide for priority testing of essential critical 
food and agriculture workers with respect to COVID–19, and for other 
purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 1, 2020 
Mr. CRAWFORD (for himself, Mr. KELLY of Mississippi, and Mr. LAMALFA) 
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ag-
riculture 
A BILL 
To require the Secretary of Agriculture to support the efforts 
of State and local governments to provide for priority 
testing of essential critical food and agriculture workers 
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 ‘‘American Food Work-
ers Protection Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. IDENTIFICATION OF COVID–19 TESTING NEEDS OF 
CRITICAL FOOD AND AGRICULTURE WORK-
ERS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Agriculture 
shall— 
(1) adopt, for use by the Department of Agri-
culture in carrying out response efforts relating to, 
and operations during, the COVID–19 pandemic, 
the categorization of food and agriculture workers as 
‘‘essential critical infrastructure workers’’ identified 
in the Guidance on the Essential Critical Infrastruc-
ture Workforce published by the Department of 
Homeland Security on March 28, 2020 (or a subse-
quent version of that guidance); and 
(2) coordinate with the Director of the Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention and the Admin-
istrator of the Federal Emergency Management 
Agency to support efforts of State and local govern-
ments to provide for— 
(A) priority testing of essential critical in-
frastructure workers (as such term is used in 
paragraph (1)) with respect to the COVID–19 
pandemic; 
(B) priority access to personal protective 
equipment, sanitizers, nonmedical-grade facial 
coverings, and other health-related or protective 
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supplies necessary to safely perform essential 
critical infrastructure work; and 
(C) ensure that the Federal agency respon-
sible for the distribution of a vaccine for 
COVID–19 in the United States prioritizes es-
sential critical infrastructure workers (as such 
term is used in paragraph (1)) for inoculation 
with that vaccine. 
(b) APPLICATION.—Nothing in this section requires 
the provision of priority testing or priority access to per-
sonal protective equipment for essential critical infrastruc-
ture workers (as such term is used in subsection (a)(1)) 
to be prioritized over the provision of that testing or access 
to personal protective equipment for other individuals who 
are identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Pre-
vention or any other relevant Federal, State, or local agen-
cy as having a higher priority for that testing or access 
to personal protective equipment, including— 
(1) patients; 
(2) healthcare workers; and 
(3) first responders. 
Æ 
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