PRIA, Government Policy, Made Personal

Summary

The Treasury must keep a special account called the "Infectious Diseases Rapid Response Reserve Fund." The CDC must deposit $50,000,000 from its "CDC‑Wide Activities and Program Support" money into that account, and those dollars stay available until they are spent. The fund can be used to carry out parts of the Public Health Service Act (titles II, III, and XVII) to prevent, prepare for, or respond to infectious disease emergencies. That includes buying or leasing and insuring passenger vehicles for official use in other countries. The fund can only be used for an emergency if the HHS Secretary declares a public health emergency under section 319 or decides an emergency is likely and could affect national security or the health or safety of U.S. citizens. The CDC Director may move money from the fund to other CDC accounts, to NIH accounts, or to the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund and merge it for the same purposes. At least 7 days before any transfer or spending, the Director must tell the House and Senate Appropriations Committees what the money will be used for and give a detailed spend plan showing program, project, or activity costs and estimated personnel and admin costs. Those spend plans must be updated quarterly with obligations so far and remaining amounts until the money is gone. The fund is extra money beyond other HHS funds and extra transfer authority beyond other HHS transfer powers. Items bought with the fund may, at the Secretary's choice, be put into the Strategic National Stockpile. This authority has been in effect since September 28, 2018, and continues each fiscal year after.

Title 42, §247d–4a

The Public Health and Welfare, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

There is established in the Treasury a reserve fund to be known as the “Infectious Diseases Rapid Response Reserve Fund” (the “Reserve Fund”): Provided, That of the funds provided under the heading “CDC-Wide Activities and Program Support” [132 Stat. 3073], $50,000,000, to remain available until expended, shall be available to the Director of the CDC for deposit in the Reserve Fund: Provided further, That amounts in the Reserve Fund shall be for carrying out titles II, III, and XVII of the PHS Act [42 U.S.C. 201 et seq., 241 et seq., 300u et seq.] to prevent, prepare for, or respond to an infectious disease emergency, including, in connection with such activities, to purchase or lease and provide for the insurance of passenger motor vehicles for official use in foreign countries: Provided further, That amounts in the Reserve Fund may only be provided for an infectious disease emergency if the infectious disease emergency (1) is declared by the Secretary of Health and Human Services under section 319 of the PHS Act [42 U.S.C. 247d] to be a public health emergency; or (2) as determined by the Secretary, has significant potential to imminently occur and potential, on occurrence, to affect national security or the health and security of United States citizens, domestically or internationally: Provided further, That amounts in the Reserve Fund may be transferred by the Director of the CDC to other accounts of the CDC, to accounts of the NIH, or to the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund, to be merged with such accounts or Fund for the purposes provided in this section: Provided further, That the Director shall provide to the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate, at least 7 days in advance of any transfer or obligation of funds made under the authority provided in this section, both a notification on the anticipated uses of funds by program, project, or activity; and a detailed spend plan of anticipated uses of funds, including estimated personnel and administrative costs, disaggregated by program, project, or activity: Provided further, That such spend plans shall be updated to include all applicable obligations to date and unobligated amounts and submitted quarterly to such Committees on Appropriations until such funds are fully expended: Provided further, That amounts in the Reserve Fund shall be in addition to amounts otherwise available to the Department of Health and Human Services for the purposes provided in this section: Provided further, That the transfer authorities in this section are in addition to any transfer authority otherwise available to the Department of Health and Human Services: Provided further, That products purchased using amounts in the Reserve Fund may, at the discretion of the Secretary of Health and Human Services, be deposited in the Strategic National Stockpile under section 319F–2 of the PHS Act [42 U.S.C. 247d–6b]: Provided further, That this section shall be in effect as of September 28, 2018, through each fiscal year hereafter.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

CDC and NIH, referred to in text, mean the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, respectively. The PHS Act, referred to in text, means the Public Health Service Act, act July 1, 1944, ch. 373, 58 Stat. 682. Titles II, III, and XVII of the Act are classified generally to subchapters I (§ 201 et seq.), II (§ 241 et seq.), and XV (§ 300u et seq.), respectively, of this chapter. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see

Short Title

note set out under section 201 of this title and Tables. Codification Section was enacted as part of the Department of Health and Human Services Appropriations Act, 2019, and also as part of the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2019, and the Department of Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act, 2019 and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2019, and not as part of the Public Health Service Act which comprises this chapter.

Amendments

2024—Pub. L. 118–47 substituted “Provided further, That the Director shall provide to the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate, at least 7 days in advance of any transfer or obligation of funds made under the authority provided in this section, both a notification on the anticipated uses of funds by program, project, or activity; and a detailed spend plan of anticipated uses of funds, including estimated personnel and administrative costs, disaggregated by program, project, or activity: Provided further, That such spend plans shall be updated to include all applicable obligations to date and unobligated amounts and submitted quarterly to such Committees on Appropriations until such funds are fully expended:” for “Provided further, That the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate shall be notified in advance of any transfer or obligation made under the authority provided in this section, including notification on the anticipated uses of such funds by program, project, or activity: Provided further, That not later than 15 days after notification of the planned use of the Reserve Fund, the Director shall provide a detailed spend plan of anticipated uses of funds, including estimated personnel and administrative costs, to the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate: Provided further, That such plans shall be updated and submitted every 90 days thereafter until funds have been fully expended which should include the unobligated balances in the Reserve Fund and all the actual obligations incurred to date:”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Reports Required Pub. L. 116–136, div. B, title VIII, Mar. 27, 2020, 134 Stat. 555, which provided in part that the Secretary of Health and Human Services, in consultation with the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, would provide a report to the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate every 14 days, for one year from the date from any such declaration or determination described in the third proviso of section 247d–4a of this title, that detailed commitment and obligation information for the Infectious Diseases Rapid Response Reserve Fund during the prior two weeks, was repealed by Pub. L. 118–47, div. D, title II, § 237, Mar. 23, 2024, 138 Stat. 681.

§247d–4a Infectious Diseases Rapid Response Reserve Fund