Title: Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States Government must take steps to end the pandemic now.
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
This concurrent resolution expresses the sense of Congress for ensuring the speediest end of the COVID-19 pandemic
The resolution states that the U.S. government has an obligation to the American people, whose taxpayer funds helped to develop lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines, to ensure that doses are ultimately delivered to those most in need around the world so as to ensure the global COVID-19 vaccination necessary to end the pandemic.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 60 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. CON. RES. 60

Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States Government must 
                  take steps to end the pandemic now.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            November 9, 2021

Ms. Schakowsky (for herself, Mr. Blumenauer, Ms. DeLauro, Mr. Doggett, 
Mr. Castro of Texas, Mr. Espaillat, Mr. Garcia of Illinois, Ms. Lee of 
 California, Ms. Jacobs of California, Mr. Khanna, Mr. Krishnamoorthi, 
    Mr. Pocan, and Ms. Pressley) submitted the following concurrent 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and 
  in addition to the Committees on Ways and Means, the Judiciary, and 
 Financial Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
  Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall 
           within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States Government must 
                  take steps to end the pandemic now.

Whereas the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic call for 
        extraordinary measures by world leaders who must choose to end the 
        pandemic and act accordingly;
Whereas the Delta variant that was first detected in India and increased COVID-
        19 deaths worldwide, making children dangerously ill and reversing 
        progress in containing COVID-19, shows why ``no one is safe until 
        everyone is safe'';
Whereas the mismatch between the crisis faced and failure to date to deliver on 
        the concrete actions needed to end the pandemic is disastrous and 
        unacceptable;
Whereas new variants may prolong the COVID-19 crisis, and the next variant could 
        be the mutation that makes COVID-19 vaccines ineffective and causes 
        untold harm and suffering;
Whereas the only way to end the pandemic and safeguard Americans' health and 
        economic security is for the United States Government to deliver on 
        President Biden's pledge to save lives worldwide by leading the global 
        COVID-19 vaccination effort, including by specifically achieving the 
        President's goal of 70 percent global COVID-19 vaccination by the United 
        Nations General Assembly in September 2022;
Whereas less than 8 percent of the entire population of the African continent is 
        vaccinated against COVID-19, and most African nations are not projected 
        to reach 10 percent COVID-19 vaccination in 2021;
Whereas less than 5 percent of people in developing countries have received at 
        least 1 dose, and many in developing nations will not have access to 
        COVID-19 vaccination until 2023 absent significant increases in COVID-19 
        vaccine production and distribution;
Whereas absent a major increase in global production and supply of COVID-19 
        vaccines, treatments, diagnostic tests, and other COVID-19-related 
        medical supplies, the pandemic will rage largely unmitigated among a 
        significant share of the world's population, resulting in further 
        mutation of the virus and increased hospitalizations and deaths;
Whereas COVID-19 has killed 1 out of 500 Americans, and the Delta variant 
        elevated the global daily death tolls to 10,000 people daily;
Whereas COVID-19 is estimated to cause the United States $16,000,000,000,000 in 
        economic losses, accompanied by global losses that have impoverished 
        hundreds of millions of people worldwide;
Whereas producing and delivering many more doses of an effective COVID-19 
        vaccine is the only path to eradicate this virus and end the pandemic 
        everywhere;
Whereas rich countries have yet to ``donate'' adequate amounts of COVID-19 
        vaccines to low- and middle-income countries, as less than 15 percent of 
        the 1,970,000,000 doses pledged have actually been delivered;
Whereas an estimated 11,000,000,000 COVID-19 vaccines were needed to vaccinate 
        70 percent of the world's adults, and demand has since increased with 
        some nations initiating booster programs and child COVID-19 vaccination 
        plans;
Whereas a major cause of the shortage is monopoly control of how much and where 
        COVID-19 vaccines are made by a handful of pharmaceutical corporations 
        that have consolidated their control using intellectual property 
        barriers;
Whereas voluntary licensing arrangements have not fixed this problem given the 
        handful of pharmaceutical corporations that are using intellectual 
        property monopolies to limit production and supply, and have refused to 
        negotiate payment terms with qualified manufacturers in Africa, Latin 
        America, and Asia creating production bottlenecks and thwarting 
        production of COVID-19 vaccine doses around the world;
Whereas COVID-19 vaccine monopoly firms are focused not on global access, but on 
        profitable markets, as demonstrated by current producers prioritizing 
        delivery of booster doses sold at increased prices in wealthy countries 
        while most of the world's population remains unvaccinated against COVID-
        19;
Whereas the COVAX initiative aims to only vaccinate 20 percent of the population 
        against COVID-19 in developing nations by the end of 2021, and is unable 
        to get enough supply to meet this modest goal;
Whereas people around the globe cheered when President Biden announced United 
        States support for the temporary waiver of some World Trade Organization 
        (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights 
        (TRIPS) rules;
Whereas in response to the Biden-Harris administration announcing support for a 
        temporary COVID-19 emergency waiver of WTO intellectual property 
        barriers, now more than 130 nations support a waiver of WTO intellectual 
        property monopolies for pharmaceutical corporations;
Whereas Germany had pushed the European Union to oppose a temporary WTO waiver, 
        and joined only by the United Kingdom and Switzerland, the 3 WTO members 
        are blocking the rest of the world's nations that seek to end a few 
        pharmaceutical corporations' monopoly control of COVID-19 medicines;
Whereas there has been no progress made in agreeing to a final WTO TRIPS waiver 
        text since the waiver was initially proposed on October 2, 2020, and 
        every week a waiver is not agreed to prolongs the pandemic;
Whereas breaking monopoly control over production not only means more COVID-19 
        vaccines, but it also will resolve COVID-19 vaccine supply chain 
        shortfalls;
Whereas affordable access can be quickly scaled up for the new antiviral COVID-
        19 treatments that dramatically reduce death and serious illness given 
        that, as small molecule drugs, they can be speedily produced by 
        manufacturers and distributed through networks already functioning for 
        HIV/AIDS medicines if intellectual property barriers are eliminated 
        through enactment of a TRIPS waiver;
Whereas to most quickly translate enactment of a temporary COVID-19 emergency 
        TRIPS waiver into more COVID-19 vaccine shots in arms, more diagnostic 
        tests detecting outbreaks and variants, and more treatments to help save 
        lives, the United States must work with South Africa and other nations 
        supporting a waiver to conclude a final text so a waiver can be enacted;
Whereas to most quickly translate the lifting of TRIPS-imposed intellectual 
        property barriers into billions of COVID-19 vaccine shots in arms, the 
        United States must leverage the public investment in research, 
        development, and prepurchase of COVID-19 vaccines and exercise its 
        existing rights and authorities to require the COVID-19 vaccine monopoly 
        firms to share recipes via speedy technology transfer;
Whereas investments in international COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing hubs and 
        infrastructure promote United States health security, economic recovery, 
        and national security, and protect Americans from this pandemic and 
        better prepare the United States for future pandemics;
Whereas keeping Americans safe from COVID-19 and revitalizing the American 
        economy to build back better rely on people worldwide having access to 
        COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostic tests, therapeutics, and treatments as 
        quickly as possible; and
Whereas a temporary TRIPS waiver does not threaten giving United States mRNA 
        technology to China and Russia because such research has already been 
        conducted by scientists around the world for decades, and the patents on 
        the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are licensed to the Chinese firm 
        Fosun Pharma to manufacture that COVID-19 vaccine for sale in China: 
        Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That it is the sense of Congress that to ensure the speediest end of 
the COVID-19 pandemic--
            (1) United States and European governments should unite to 
        enact a World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade-
        Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver, 
        require technology transfer, and otherwise facilitate access in 
        low- and middle-income countries to high-quality COVID-19 mRNA 
        vaccines;
            (2) vital United States partners, with shared values who 
        also prioritize global cooperation and saving lives and 
        livelihoods worldwide, should unite to remove all obstacles to 
        global access to COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostics, treatments, 
        oxygen, and other medical products to advance the common goal 
        of quickly ending the COVID-19 pandemic;
            (3) the United States Government should play its 
        indispensable leadership role to work with South Africa and 
        other nations to quickly finalize a WTO TRIPS waiver, overcome 
        the opposition now blocking the 130 nations that support a 
        waiver, and secure swift adoption of a temporary COVID-19 
        waiver of the patent, copyright, industrial design, and 
        undisclosed data provisions of the WTO TRIPS Agreement with 
        respect to COVID-19 vaccines, treatments, diagnostic tests, and 
        other medical products to prevent, contain, or treat COVID-19 
        and the inputs and equipment to make such medical products, so 
        that WTO rules no longer thwart others countries' wider 
        production of COVID-19 medicines;
            (4) the United States Government should leverage its 
        massive taxpayer investments in COVID-19 vaccine development 
        and use existing legal authorities under the Defense Production 
        Act, Bayh-Dole Act, and section 1498 of title 28, United States 
        Code, to compel COVID-19 vaccine makers to share the COVID-19 
        vaccine recipe with willing, qualified companies around the 
        world for a fair royalty fee so more doses can be made as 
        quickly as possible;
            (5) the United States Government should launch and help 
        fund a global manufacturing plan to increase and democratize 
        COVID-19 vaccine production in regional hubs around the world 
        to produce 8,000,000,000 more COVID-19 vaccine doses by 
        repurposing existing facilities and building new capacity, 
        including by allocating funds to capital expenditures to 
        establish additional COVID-19 mRNA vaccine manufacturing lines 
        and providing funding for raw materials, technology transfer, 
        and royalty costs to scale up production and shave years from 
        the global pandemic; and
            (6) the United States Government has an obligation to the 
        American people, whose taxpayer funds helped to develop these 
        lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines, to ensure that doses are 
        ultimately delivered to those most in need around the world so 
        as to ensure the global COVID-19 vaccination that is necessary 
        to end the pandemic.
                                 <all>