Title: Protecting Essential Workers Act
Policy area: Health

Summary:
Protecting Essential Workers Act
This bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services to establish within two months a publicly accessible clearinghouse of information about personal protective equipment used to prevent the spread of COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) or other pathogens that trigger public health emergency declarations.
The clearinghouse must identify sources of available equipment, verify product prices, and provide other information to facilitate the procurement of these products. Participation in this clearinghouse by suppliers of personal protective equipment must be voluntary.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 8604 Introduced in House (IH)]

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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 information 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 prevent the spread of COVID-19 or any 
   other pathogen triggering a public health emergency declaration, 
     including information on the quality and availability of such 
                   equipment, 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 ``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 Secretary of Health and Human Services 
shall establish and 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.
    (b) Requirements.--Subject to subsection (c), the internet 
clearinghouse established under subsection (a) shall--
            (1) identify available personal protective equipment by--
                    (A) conducting outbound sourcing to identify 
                manufacturers and distributers of personal protective 
                equipment;
                    (B) soliciting information from manufacturers and 
                distributers of available personal protective 
                equipment;
                    (C) verifying manufacturer and distributer 
                regulatory status;
                    (D) verifying supporting documentation of supplier 
                registration, factory, and product certifications;
                    (E) collecting information on product pricing, 
                minimum order quantities, lead time, supply resilience, 
                and availability; and
                    (F) verifying product prices to ensure that no 
                price violates antiprice gouging laws;
            (2) provide transparent information about personal 
        protective equipment availability, dissemination, and 
        procurement opportunities by making available information 
        collected pursuant to paragraph (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 officials 
                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.
    (c) Inclusion of Suppliers Only on Voluntary Basis.--The Secretary 
may include in the internet clearinghouse established under subsection 
(a) information with respect to a supplier (including any manufacturer 
or distributor) only if the supplier agrees to be referenced in the 
clearinghouse, in which case the supplier shall agree to provide to the 
Secretary the information listed in subsection (b)(1).
    (d) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) The term ``personal protective equipment''--
                    (A) means equipment designated to protect 
                individuals from the spread of infection or illness, as 
                determined by the Secretary; and
                    (B) includes any such disinfecting wipes, helmets, 
                gloves, face shields, hand sanitizer, goggles, 
                facemasks, protective clothing, and respirators.
            (2) The term ``State'' means the 50 States, the District of 
        Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States 
        Virgin Islands, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana 
        Islands, and American Samoa.
            (3) The term ``Tribal'', with respect to a department of 
        health (or health department), includes--
                    (A) Indian Tribes that--
                            (i) are operating 1 or more health 
                        facilities pursuant to an agreement under the 
                        Indian Self-Determination and Education 
                        Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5301 et seq.); or
                            (ii) receive services from a facility 
                        operated by the Indian Health Services; and
                    (B) Tribal organizations (as the term ``tribal 
                organization'' is defined in section 4 of the Indian 
                Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 
                U.S.C. 5304)) and Urban Indian organizations (as 
                defined in section 4 of the Indian Health Care 
                Improvement Act (25 U.S.C. 1603)).
    (e) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out this section, 
to be derived exclusively from unobligated amounts in the Public Health 
and Social Emergency Fund.
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