American Food Workers Protection Act

Bill: 116-hr-8482
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. Crawford, Eric A. "Rick" [R-AR-1]
Introduced: 2020-10-01
Policy area: Agriculture and Food
Subjects: Cardiovascular and respiratory health

Emergency medical services and trauma care

Food industry and services

Health technology, devices, supplies

Immunology and vaccination

Infectious and parasitic diseases

Intergovernmental relations

Medical tests and diagnostic methods

Migrant, seasonal, agricultural labor

State and local government operations

Worker safety and health
Latest action: action_date: 2020-10-01
text: Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture.

Summaries:
action_date: 2020-10-01
action_desc: Introduced in House
text: <p><b>American Food Workers Protection Act </b></p> <p>This bill requires the Department of Agriculture to support state and local jurisdictions in providing (1) priority COVID-19 testing for essential critical food and agriculture workers; (2) priority access to personal protective equipment, sanitizers, face coverings, and other health-related or protective supplies necessary to safely perform essential critical infrastructure work; and (3) assurance that the federal agency responsible for the distribution of a vaccine for COVID-19 in the United States will prioritize essential critical food and agriculture workers for inoculation with the vaccine. </p>

tv_txt: I 116th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 8482 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES October 1, 2020 Mr. Crawford (for himself, Mr. Kelly of Mississippi , and Mr. LaMalfa ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture A BILL To require the Secretary of Agriculture to support the efforts of State and local governments to provide for priority testing of essential critical food and agriculture workers with respect to COVID–19, and for other purposes.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the American Food Workers Protection Act . 2. Identification of COVID–19 testing needs of critical food and agriculture workers (a) In general The Secretary of Agriculture shall— (1) adopt, for use by the Department of Agriculture in carrying out response efforts relating to, and operations during, the COVID–19 pandemic, the categorization of food and agriculture workers as essential critical infrastructure workers identified in the Guidance on the Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce published by the Department of Homeland Security on March 28, 2020 (or a subsequent version of that guidance); and (2) coordinate with the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to support efforts of State and local governments to provide for— (A) priority testing of essential critical infrastructure workers (as such term is used in paragraph (1)) with respect to the COVID–19 pandemic; (B) priority access to personal protective equipment, sanitizers, nonmedical-grade facial coverings, and other health-related or protective supplies necessary to safely perform essential critical infrastructure work; and (C) ensure that the Federal agency responsible for the distribution of a vaccine for COVID–19 in the United States prioritizes essential critical infrastructure workers (as such term is used in paragraph (1)) for inoculation with that vaccine. (b) Application Nothing in this section requires the provision of priority testing or priority access to personal protective equipment for essential critical infrastructure workers (as such term is used in subsection (a)(1)) to be prioritized over the provision of that testing or access to personal protective equipment for other individuals who are identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or any other relevant Federal, State, or local agency as having a higher priority for that testing or access to personal protective equipment, including— (1) patients; (2) healthcare workers; and (3) first responders.