Title: Community Readiness Act
Policy area: Water Resources Development

Summary:
Community Readiness Act
This bill allows the Department of Health and Human Services to award grants for research institutions or state or local governments to research or establish wastewater surveillance systems or other early-warning systems for detecting infectious diseases.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 8605 Introduced in House (IH)]

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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, wastewater surveillance and other early warning systems, 
                        and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    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 Environmental Protection 
 Agency to award grants to certain entities to conduct research on, or 
to establish, wastewater surveillance and other early warning systems, 
                        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 ``Community Readiness Act''.

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 establish, 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 recipient 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;
            ``(2) entering into contracts with private companies 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 entities 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 populations 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 regulations 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 Administrator of 
        the Environmental Protection Agency.
            ``(2) The term `eligible entity' means--
                    ``(A) a State government;
                    ``(B) a local government;
                    ``(C) a Tribal government;
                    ``(D) an entity that conducts health research; 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 Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana 
        Islands, the Virgin Islands, and the Trust Territory of the 
        Pacific Islands.
            ``(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 appropriated $18,000,000 for each of fiscal 
years 2021 through 2025.''.
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