I 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 8605 
To authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services, in consultation 
with the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to award 
grants to certain entities to conduct research on, or to establish, waste-
water surveillance and other early warning systems, and for other pur-
poses. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 16, 2020 
Mr. KIM (for himself and Mr. BILIRAKIS) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services, 
in consultation with the Administrator of the Environ-
mental Protection Agency to award grants to certain 
entities to conduct research on, or to establish, waste-
water surveillance and other early warning systems, 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 ‘‘Community Readiness 
Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. GRANTS FOR RESEARCH ON, OR ESTABLISHING, 
WASTEWATER SURVEILLANCE AND OTHER 
EARLY WARNING SYSTEMS. 
Subtitle C of title XVIII of the Public Health Service 
Act (42 U.S.C. 300hh–31 et seq.) is amended by adding 
at the end the following: 
‘‘SEC. 2823. GRANTS FOR RESEARCH ON, OR ESTABLISHING, 
WASTEWATER SURVEILLANCE AND OTHER 
EARLY WARNING SYSTEMS. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Health and 
Human Services, in consultation with the Administrator 
of the Environmental Protection Agency, may award 
grants to eligible entities to conduct research on, or to es-
tablish, a wastewater surveillance or other early warning 
system through— 
‘‘(1) wastewater testing; 
‘‘(2) temperature tracking to monitor axillary 
body temperature; and 
‘‘(3) other methods deemed permissible by the 
Secretary and Administrator. 
‘‘(b) PERMISSIBLE USES OF FUNDS.—A grant recipi-
ent under this section may use grant funds to support the 
activities described in subsection (a), including by— 
‘‘(1) paying for data-centric services that can 
detect infectious diseases before positive cases or 
hospitalizations; 
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‘‘(2) entering into contracts with private compa-
nies to implement early warning detection methods; 
or 
‘‘(3) funding research to study early warning 
detection methods. 
‘‘(c) PRIORITY.—In selecting grant recipients under 
this section, the Secretary shall give priority to eligible en-
tities proposing to conduct research on, or to establish, 
wastewater surveillance or other early warning system in 
one or more areas that— 
‘‘(1) are (or include one or more areas that are) 
a hot spot; or 
‘‘(2) a higher percentage of vulnerable popu-
lations than the national average. 
‘‘(d) FEDERAL PRIVACY REQUIREMENTS.—Nothing 
in this section shall be construed to supersede any Federal 
privacy or confidentiality requirement, including the regu-
lations promulgated under section 264(c) of the Health 
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (42 
U.S.C. 1320d–2 note) and section 543 of the Public 
Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 290dd–2). 
‘‘(e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
‘‘(1) The term ‘Administrator’ means the Ad-
ministrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. 
‘‘(2) The term ‘eligible entity’ means— 
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‘‘(A) a State government; 
‘‘(B) a local government; 
‘‘(C) a Tribal government; 
‘‘(D) an entity that conducts health re-
search; and 
‘‘(E) an academic institution. 
‘‘(3) The term ‘emergency period’ has the 
meaning given to that term in section 1135(g)(1)(B) 
of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1320b– 
5(g)(1)(B)). 
‘‘(4) The term ‘hot spot’ means a geographic 
area where the rate of infection with a particular 
pathogen exceeds the national average. 
‘‘(5) The term ‘local government’ means a 
county, municipality, town, township, village, parish, 
borough, or other unit of general local government. 
‘‘(6) The term ‘Secretary’ means the Secretary 
of Health and Human Services. 
‘‘(7) The term ‘State’ means each of the several 
States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth 
of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Com-
monwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the 
Virgin Islands, and the Trust Territory of the Pa-
cific Islands. 
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‘‘(8) The term ‘vulnerable population’ means 
people at increased risk of severe illness. 
‘‘(f) AUTHORIZATION
OF
APPROPRIATIONS.—To 
carry out this section, there are authorized to be appro-
priated $18,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2021 through 
2025.’’. 
Æ 
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