[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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