Pandemic Community Reserve and Public Health Response Act
Latest action. Referred to the subcommitteeA smaller panel inside a standing committee with jurisdiction over a slice of its subject matter. Most hearings and the first markup usually happen here.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management.
Pandemic Community Reserve and Public Health Response Act
This bill directs the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to award grants and otherwise expand the federal public health reserve corps, including by reactivating retired personnel, to assist with COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) response efforts. This corps includes, among others, the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service, the Medical Reserve Corps, and certain personnel of the Federal Emergency Management Agency appointed to respond to disasters and emergencies.
Specifically, HHS must award grants to governmental health departments to recruit and train personnel to serve in the federal public health reserve corps and assist with COVID-19 testing, contact tracing, and treatment. To carry out these grants, health departments may establish partnerships with institutions that offer medical training and public health programs, giving priority to partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities and other minority-serving institutions. HHS must also develop a training program, in consultation with the Department of Defense, that addresses activation and surge capacity of the reserve corps to respond to COVID-19.
In addition, HHS must award grants, in consultation with the Department of Labor, to local workforce development boards to develop career plans and other activities to facilitate the transition of reserve corps personnel to other health-related occupations.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in House" stage on July 27, 2020. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on July 28, 2020: Referred to the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 116th Congress (2019-20), 344 of the 14,345 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 2.4 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Marcia Fudge (D-OH) introduced it on July 27, 2020, and 3 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They are 3 Democrats.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on July 27, 2020, 2236 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 2235 days ago, on July 28, 2020.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 116th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2021 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers