Title: COVID–19 Health Care Worker Protection Act of 2020
Policy area: Labor and Employment

Summary:
COVID-19 Health Care Worker Protection Act of 2020
This bill requires the Department of Labor to promulgate both an emergency temporary occupational safety or health standard and a permanent standard to protect certain employees from occupational exposure to the coronavirus (i.e., the virus that causes COVID-19). These standards apply to health care sector employees and other employees identified as having an elevated risk for exposure, including employees of states and their political subdivisions.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3475 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3475

   To direct the Secretary of Labor to issue an emergency temporary 
  standard that requires certain employers to develop and implement a 
   comprehensive infectious disease exposure control plan to protect 
 employees in the health care sectors and other employees at elevated 
       risk from exposure to SARS-CoV-2, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 12, 2020

Ms. Duckworth (for herself, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Brown, Mr. Sanders, Mr. 
  Durbin, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Booker, Mr. Reed, Mr. Menendez, and Ms. 
    Warren) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
  referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To direct the Secretary of Labor to issue an emergency temporary 
  standard that requires certain employers to develop and implement a 
   comprehensive infectious disease exposure control plan to protect 
 employees in the health care sectors and other employees at elevated 
       risk from exposure to SARS-CoV-2, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``COVID-19 Health Care Worker 
Protection Act of 2020''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The infectious disease COVID-19 presents a grave danger 
        to health care workers who are on the first line of defense of 
        the United States against this epidemic.
            (2) Hundreds of health care workers in the United States 
        have been infected or quarantined due to exposure to patients 
        with COVID-19. Surveys conducted by health care worker unions 
        and others have found that many healthcare facilities are 
        inadequately prepared to safely protect health care workers who 
        are exposed to the virus.
            (3) Inadequate infection control precautions have a 
        detrimental impact on health care workers, patients, and the 
        public, and if there is breakdown in health care worker 
        protections, the Nation's public health system is placed at 
        risk.
            (4) The severe acute respiratory syndrome (referred to in 
        this section as ``SARS'') epidemic of 2003 and 2004 in Canada, 
        which involved a coronavirus, resulted in a disproportionately 
        large number of infections of both health care workers and 
        patients in Ontario, Canada hospitals due to insufficient 
        infection control procedures involving SARS.
            (5) The Occupational Safety and Health Administration began 
        rulemaking on a standard to protect health care workers from 
        airborne and other infectious diseases in 2009. In 2017, the 
        Trump Administration suspended work on this rulemaking, 
        removing it from the active Regulatory Agenda.
            (6) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a 
        document entitled ``2007 Guideline for Isolation Precautions: 
        Preventing Transmission of Infectious Agents in Healthcare 
        Settings'' in July, 2007. However, the guideline in such 
        document is not binding.
            (7) Absent an enforceable standard, employers lack 
        mandatory requirements to implement an effective and ongoing 
        infection and exposure control program that provides protection 
        to health care workers from COVID-19.
            (8) Section 6(c)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health 
        Act of 1970 (29 U.S.C. 655(c)(1)) authorizes the Occupational 
        Safety and Health Administration to issue an emergency 
        temporary standard if employees are exposed to grave danger 
        from harmful agents or new hazards and if an emergency standard 
        is necessary to protect employees from such danger. The 
        widespread outbreak of COVID-19 clearly satisfies these two 
        conditions.
            (9) The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has 
        received 2 petitions in March 2020 calling on the Occupational 
        Safety and Health Administration to issue an emergency 
        temporary standard to protect workers from COVID-19.
            (10) An emergency temporary standard is necessary to ensure 
        the immediate protection of workers in health care workplaces 
        and other high-risk workplaces identified by the Centers for 
        Disease Control and Prevention and the Occupational Safety and 
        Health Administration from infection related to COVID-19.

             TITLE I--COVID-19 EMERGENCY TEMPORARY STANDARD

SEC. 101. COVID-19 EMERGENCY TEMPORARY STANDARD.

    (a) Emergency Temporary Standard.--Pursuant to section 6(c)(1) of 
the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (29 U.S.C. 655(c)(1)), 
not later than 1 month after the date of enactment of this Act, the 
Secretary of Labor shall promulgate an emergency temporary standard to 
protect from occupational exposure to SARS-CoV-2--
            (1) employees of health care sector employers; and
            (2) employees in other sectors whom the Centers for Disease 
        Control and Prevention or the Occupational Safety and Health 
        Administration identifies as having elevated risk.
    (b) Permanent Standard.--Upon publication of the emergency standard 
under subsection (a), the Secretary of Labor shall commence a 
proceeding to promulgate a standard under section 6(c)(3) of the 
Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (29 U.S.C. 655(c)(3)) with 
respect to such emergency temporary standard.
    (c) Requirements.--Each standard promulgated under this section 
shall--
            (1) require the employers of the employees described in 
        subsection (a) to develop and implement a comprehensive 
        infectious disease exposure control plan; and
            (2) at a minimum, be based on the precautions for severe 
        acute respiratory syndrome in the ``2007 Guideline for 
        Isolation Precautions: Preventing Transmission of Infectious 
        Agents in Healthcare Settings'' of the Centers for Disease 
        Control and Prevention and any subsequent updates; and
            (3) provide no less protection for novel pathogens than 
        precautions mandated by standards adopted by a State plan that 
        has been approved by the Secretary of Labor under section 18 of 
        the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (29 U.S.C. 667).
    (d) Applicability to States and Political Subdivisions.--For the 
purposes of this title, a State or political subdivision of a State 
shall be considered an employer under section 3(5) of the Occupational 
Safety and Health Act of 1970 (29 U.S.C. 652(5)), and the emergency 
temporary standard and permanent standard required under this section 
shall be applicable to such employers and enforceable under the 
Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (29 U.S.C. 651 et seq.).

            TITLE II--AMENDMENTS TO THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACT

SEC. 201. APPLICATION OF COVID-19 EMERGENCY TEMPORARY STANDARD TO 
              CERTAIN FACILITIES RECEIVING MEDICARE FUNDS.

    (a) In General.--Section 1866 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 
1395cc) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)(1)--
                    (A) in subparagraph (X), by striking ``and'' at the 
                end;
                    (B) in subparagraph (Y), by striking the period at 
                the end and inserting ``; and''; and
                    (C) by inserting after subparagraph (Y) the 
                following new subparagraph:
            ``(Z) in the case of hospitals that are not otherwise 
        subject to the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (or a 
        State occupational safety and health plan that is approved 
        under 18(b) of such Act) and skilled nursing facilities that 
        are not otherwise subject to such Act (or such a State 
        occupational safety and health plan), to comply with the 
        standards promulgated under section 101 of the COVID-19 Health 
        Care Worker Protection Act of 2020.''; and
            (2) in subsection (b)(4)--
                    (A) in subparagraph (A), by inserting ``and a 
                hospital or skilled nursing facility that fails to 
                comply with the requirement of subsection (a)(1)(Z) 
                (relating to the standards promulgated under section 
                101 of the COVID-19 Health Care Worker Protection Act 
                of 2020)'' after ``Bloodborne Pathogens Standard)''; 
                and
                    (B) in subparagraph (B)--
                            (i) by striking ``(a)(1)(U)'' and inserting 
                        ``(a)(1)(V)''; and
                            (ii) by inserting ``(or, in the case of a 
                        failure to comply with the requirement of 
                        subsection (a)(1)(Z), for a violation of the 
                        standards referred to in such subsection by a 
                        hospital or skilled nursing facility, as 
                        applicable, that is subject to the provisions 
                        of such Act)'' before the period at the end.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by subsection (a) shall 
apply beginning on the date that is 1 month after the date of 
promulgation of the emergency temporary standard under section 101 of 
the COVID-19 Health Care Worker Protection Act of 2020.
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