The U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee on March 15 voted 20-2 to approve a bipartisan bill containing provisions offered by U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) that aim to help improve the nation’s biodefense and pandemic preparedness and response.
“I thank the [HELP Committee] chair and ranking member for including my bill to allow for new capabilities for domestic surge manufacturing so that medical countermeasures, from tests and personal protective equipment, to vaccines and therapeutics, can be rapidly manufactured to respond to public health emergencies,” Sen. Romney said. “It will help ensure that we are better prepared in a future public health emergency.”
Specifically, the HELP Committee on Tuesday advanced the Prepare for and Respond to Existing Viruses, Emerging New Threats, and (PREVENT) Pandemics Act, S. 3799, introduced on March 10 by U.S. Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Richard Burr (R-NC) to prepare for and respond to existing viruses, emerging new threats, and pandemics.
The committee-approved S. 3799 includes the bipartisan Medical Countermeasures Surge Capacity Act of 2022, S. 3588, which Sen. Romney sponsored on Feb. 7 alongside lead original cosponsor U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) to improve domestic manufacturing surge capacity and capabilities for biodefense and pandemic preparedness.
“I am pleased that the committee also included my provision to require a thorough inventory of the fragmented public health preparedness, response, and recovery data systems that exist across HHS and an analysis of the duplication, fragmentation, and overlap of these programs,” added Sen. Romney. “Understanding the systems we have in place, and how they help or hinder our preparedness capabilities, is an important first step in streamlining this information.”
The senator also pointed out that the arrival of COVID-19 caught the nation off guard, making it unable to monitor the spread of the disease in real-time.
“As a result, policymakers were left making decisions without essential information,” he said. “We need to learn from our mistakes and ensure that in the event of another pandemic, the United States is ready with the data we need to make smart decisions for the American public.”
The larger S. 3799 now heads to the full U.S. Senate for consideration.