[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3778 Introduced in House (IH)]
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117th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 3778
To establish a program to oversee the global COVID-19 response and
prepare for future pandemics, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
June 8, 2021
Mr. Krishnamoorthi (for himself, Ms. Jayapal, Mr. Khanna, Mr. Cohen,
Mr. Payne, Mr. Grijalva, Ms. Norton, Mr. Carson, and Ms. Ross)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on Energy and
Commerce, 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
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To establish a program to oversee the global COVID-19 response and
prepare for future pandemics, 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 ``Nullifying Opportunities for
Variants to Infect and Decimate Act'' or the ``NOVID Act''.
SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) the United States has made tremendous progress towards
ending the COVID-19 pandemic within its borders, thanks to an
unprecedented and highly successful vaccination campaign
spearheaded by the Biden administration;
(2) beyond those borders, the pandemic continues to rage
unchecked across much of the world as global vaccination
efforts have struggled to keep pace;
(3) if current trends continue, many middle-income
countries may not achieve widespread vaccination until late
2022, and the world's poorest nations will likely not reach
widespread vaccination coverage before 2023, if at all;
(4) this situation threatens progress toward ending the
COVID-19 pandemic here in the United States, as unchecked
transmission of COVID-19 gives rise to new variants, many of
which show vaccine-resistance;
(5) the most concerning of these variants has been shown to
reduce vaccine efficacy by as much as 20 to 40 percent; and
(6) to protect American citizens from the emergence of new
vaccine-resistant coronavirus variants and to prevent the kind
of humanitarian catastrophe currently occurring in South Asia,
South America, and elsewhere, the United States should take up
the mantle of global leadership in the fight to end the COVID-
19 pandemic.
SEC. 3. PANDEMIC PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE PROGRAM.
(a) Establishment.--There is established the ``Pandemic
Preparedness and Response Program'' (in this Act referred to as the
``Program'') to be responsible for and provide oversight over the
United States government-wide global health response to the COVID-19
pandemic and protect Americans from the emergence of COVID-19 variants
and other pathogens with pandemic potential.
(b) Director.--The Director of the Program shall be appointed by
the President. The Director shall be responsible for coordinating among
the Federal departments and agencies listed in subsection (c)(1) and
coordinating the role of the United States in the work of international
non-governmental organizations, development banks, civil society, and
foreign governments, with respect to the global health response to the
COVID-19 pandemic and the prevention of the emergence of variants or of
other pathogens with pandemic potential.
(c) Federal Departments and Agencies.--The Federal departments and
agencies listed in this subsection are the following:
(1) The Department of State.
(2) The United States Agency for International Development.
(3) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
(4) The Food and Drug Administration.
(5) The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development
Authority and the Health Resources and Services Administration
of the Department of Health and Human Services.
(6) The Department of Defense.
(7) The Peace Corps.
(8) The Department of Labor.
(9) Any other department or agency the President determines
appropriate.
(d) Comprehensive Strategy.--Not later than 30 days after the date
of the enactment of this Act, the Director shall develop a
comprehensive strategy to end the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide, as well
as a long-term strategy for preventing future pandemics, that includes
specific achievable goals to accomplish the following with respect to
the COVID-19 pandemic:
(1) With respect to supplies, addressing issues relating to
the shortages of vaccines, vaccine components, and any raw
materials necessary to producing these articles, as well as
other supplies necessary to carrying out a global vaccination
campaign, to ensure that there is an adequate supply of
vaccines and other necessary articles for all countries (taking
into account existing manufacturing capacity).
(2) With respect to delivery, addressing issues relating to
the end-to-end delivery and administration of vaccines in low-
and middle-income countries to ensure that at least 60 percent
of the populations in the 92 low- and middle-income countries
identified by the COVAX initiative are vaccinated as soon as
possible and no later than the beginning of the second quarter
of 2022.
(3) With respect to preventing future pandemics, addressing
issues relating to the coordination and integration of disease
surveillance and early-warning systems, harmonizing early
crisis response measures around the world, and limiting the
potential for spillover events before they happen.
(e) Authorization of Appropriations.--
(1) Authorization.--There is authorized to be appropriated
$34,000,000,000 to carry out the Program established under this
section.
(2) Coordination.--Amounts made available to any Federal
department or agency for providing global health assistance or
other forms of foreign assistance are also authorized to be
made available to the Program and shall be subject to the
oversight and coordination of the Director.
(3) Sense of congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
(A) approximately $25,000,000,000 of the amount
appropriated pursuant to the authorization under
paragraph (1) should be made available to scale vaccine
manufacturing capacity and produce vaccines;
(B) approximately $8,500,000,000 of such funds
should be made available to cover the cost of end-to-
end delivery and administration of vaccines in target
countries; and
(C) approximately $500,000,000 should be made
available to establish a global disease surveillance
network to protect against future pandemics.
SEC. 4. IMPLEMENTATION OF COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGY.
(a) Implementation.--In implementing the strategy developed
pursuant to section 3(d)--
(1) the Director of the Program shall--
(A) ensure the immediate release of the 80,000,000
doses of vaccine that the United States has already
committed to send abroad;
(B) reassess the United States vaccine stockpile
with regard to domestic vaccination objectives and
trends to determine whether further vaccines can be
sent abroad;
(C) coordinate with the Biomedical Advanced
Research and Development Authority of the Department of
Health and Human Services (BARDA) to rapidly scale
manufacturing capacity around the world, both in the
United States and in regional manufacturing hubs, to
whatever degree necessary and wherever necessary, to
produce 8,000,000,000 vaccine doses as soon as
possible, in addition to existing manufacturing
capacity;
(D) consider the potential benefit of regional
manufacturing hubs in South America, Africa and South
Asia for the future of global health more generally,
and especially the potential benefit for addressing
future pandemics through the surveillance network
implemented pursuant to paragraph (3);
(E) encourage and facilitate technology sharing and
the licensing of intellectual property as much as is
necessary to ensure an adequate and timely supply of
necessary articles;
(F) in collaboration with COVAX, ensure equitable
access to vaccines, especially those produced through
the efforts of BARDA and the Program as described in
subparagraph (3) and paragraph (2);
(G) work with international partners to provide
enough vaccines to lower- and middle-income countries
to fully vaccinate at least 60 percent of their
respective populations, with special attention to the
92 lower- and middle-income countries identified by the
COVAX initiative as being the most in need of
assistance; and
(H) consider the central and necessary role that
community engagement and public awareness will play in
ensuring the voluntary uptake of vaccines by at least
60% of the populations in target countries;
(2) the Program shall--
(A) work closely with host governments,
international partners, and other non-governmental
organizations to develop in-country infrastructure,
personnel and other assets sufficient to deliver
vaccines where they are needed, when they are needed,
and to administer the vaccines to appropriate target
populations;
(B) build on existing healthcare delivery
infrastructure and relationships developed through the
President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief and other
pre-existing, bilateral humanitarian aid programs
between the United States and the target countries, as
well as through pre-existing multilateral relationships
and initiatives in target countries;
(C) develop country operational plans targeted
primarily at lower- and middle-income countries without
the infrastructure to manufacture, acquire, or
administer vaccines on their own;
(D) monitor how many people in such target
countries received inoculations, the infection rate,
and vaccine manufacture status, including as a result
of the activities of the Program; and
(E) monitor and prepare, on a daily basis, updates
on the overall progress in non-targeted countries
toward vaccinating their populations and ending the
COVID-19 pandemic within their borders, to ensure that
the Director remains aware of overall global progress
toward vaccinating the global population and ending the
COVID-19 pandemic worldwide; and
(3) following the end or abatement of the COVID-19
pandemic, the Program should shift to protect against future
pandemics by coordinating a global disease surveillance network
to identify and stop pathogens with pandemic potential before
they spread uncontrollably by--
(A) building on existing surveillance and
prevention infrastructure and relationships developed
through the National Security Council Directorate on
Global Health Security and Biodefense as well as other
pre-existing surveillance and prevention programs;
(B) working with international partners to
establish a coordinated disease surveillance system,
directly linked to decision-makers in foreign
governments and non-governmental organizations, such
that certain agreed early-warning metrics would trigger
timely and open communication between relevant
decision-makers around the world; and
(C) in addition to monitoring for early-warning
signs of potential future pandemics, consider how to
prevent or limit the potential for new spillover events
by which new pathogens with pandemic potential are
first transmitted to humans.
(b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) the United States Government played a crucial role in
the unprecedented rapid development of the COVID-19 vaccines,
substantially funding several vaccine candidates and closely
collaborating with Moderna on the NIH-Moderna vaccine; and
(2) in the face of a global health emergency, the United
States Government has broad authority, including under the
Defense Production Act (50 U.S.C. 4501 et seq.) and chapter 18
of title 35, United States Code (commonly referred to as the
``Bayh-Dole Act''), to ensure adequate supply of vaccines,
necessary components, and raw materials through technology
sharing and direct collaboration with manufacturers around the
world.
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