I 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 8604 
To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to maintain an 
internet clearinghouse of information on suppliers of personal protective 
equipment needed to prevent the spread of COVID–19 or any other 
pathogen triggering a public health emergency declaration, including in-
formation on the quality and availability of such equipment, and for 
other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 16, 2020 
Mr. KIM (for himself and Mr. SCHNEIDER) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to 
maintain an internet clearinghouse of information on 
suppliers of personal protective equipment needed to pre-
vent the spread of COVID–19 or any other pathogen 
triggering a public health emergency declaration, includ-
ing information on the quality and availability of such 
equipment, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting Essential 
Workers Act’’. 
SEC. 
2. 
NATIONAL 
COVID–19 
PERSONAL 
PROTECTIVE 
EQUIPMENT CLEARINGHOUSE. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Beginning not later than 2 
months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Sec-
retary of Health and Human Services shall establish and 
maintain an internet clearinghouse of information on sup-
pliers of personal protective equipment needed to prevent 
the spread of COVID–19 or any other pathogen triggering 
a public health emergency declaration. 
(b) REQUIREMENTS.—Subject to subsection (c), the 
internet clearinghouse established under subsection (a) 
shall— 
(1) identify available personal protective equip-
ment by— 
(A) conducting outbound sourcing to iden-
tify manufacturers and distributers of personal 
protective equipment; 
(B) soliciting information from manufac-
turers and distributers of available personal 
protective equipment; 
(C) verifying manufacturer and distributer 
regulatory status; 
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(D) verifying supporting documentation of 
supplier registration, factory, and product cer-
tifications; 
(E) collecting information on product pric-
ing, minimum order quantities, lead time, sup-
ply resilience, and availability; and 
(F) verifying product prices to ensure that 
no price violates antiprice gouging laws; 
(2) provide transparent information about per-
sonal protective equipment availability, dissemina-
tion, and procurement opportunities by making 
available information collected pursuant to para-
graph (1); and 
(3) be established in a manner that allows the 
information collected to be available to the public 
and government, including— 
(A) health care providers; 
(B) workers deemed essential by public of-
ficials during the COVID–19 pandemic and any 
subsequent pandemics triggering public health 
emergency declarations; 
(C) any State, local, or Tribal government; 
and 
(D) local emergency operations centers and 
health departments. 
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