Legislation Includes Five Bills Lead by McKinley
WASHINGTON, D.C. —Today, House Republicans introduced the “Commitment to Defeat the Virus and Keep America Healthy Act” (H.R. 14), which includes a variety of provisions to improve pandemic preparedness and response, strengthen American-made supply chains for essential goods, and address mental health and drug abuse problems associated with the pandemic.
This legislation contains more than 50 bipartisan bills, including five championed by Rep. McKinley.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed glaring weaknesses in our healthcare system,” McKinley said. “If we adopt this plan we can improve our preparedness, secure our supply chains, and strengthen our domestic manufacturing capabilities. The bill also takes steps to ensure vulnerable populations can utilize telehealth and mental health services.”
“These reforms would help us defeat the COVID-19 pandemic and provide West Virginia communities with a peace of mind,” added McKinley. “Congress provided much-needed relief to address this economic and public health crisis earlier this year, but there is much more to be done. This package of bills would be a common-sense start.”
Background:
The Commitment to Defeat the Virus and Keep America Healthy Act (H.R. 14) is made up of over 50 bipartisan bills from the Energy and Commerce Committee and several other committees.
The bill encompasses several areas that are key to tackling the COVID-19 pandemic and the unintended consequences associated with it including:
pandemic preparedness;
manufacturing and supply chain;
updates to the strategic national stockpile;
public health infrastructure improvements;
addressing health disparities;
mental health and substance abuse;
tax incentives to improve health care, Medicare and telehealth.
The five McKinley bills included are:
H.R. 7574, the Strengthening America’s Strategic National Stockpile Act. This bill combines several bipartisan bills to spur domestic manufacturing and strengthen the stockpile, a repository of critical supplies and medicines maintained by HHS to respond to public health emergencies.
H.R. 3878, the Block, Report, and Suspend Suspicious Shipments Act. This bill would require drug manufacturers, distributors and other DEA registrants to both report and stop any suspicious drug orders. This legislation also addresses a recommendation from the Energy and Commerce Committee’s 2018 report on the pill dumping scandal.
H.R. 3927, the PDMP Help Patients Act. This bill creates a pilot program to test the feasibility and outcomes of integrating a substance use disorder and behavioral health treatment locator tool into the prescription drug monitoring programs of eligible States.
H.R. 6877, To direct the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response to issue a report to Congress regarding all State, local, Tribal, and territorial requests for supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile related to COVID-19, and for other purposes. The bill requires the Secretary of HHS to issue a report to the Congress on all State, local, Tribal, and territorial requests for supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) related to COVID-19, including the types and amounts of medical countermeasures requested and the outcomes of those requests.
H.R. 6930, MADE in America Act. This bill requires HHS to submit a report to Congress on barriers to domestic manufacturing of medical products and requires the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to assess whether the differing regulatory requirements across countries create inefficiencies in drug manufacturing.