Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Defense and Enhancement Act
Latest action. Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Defense and Enhancement Act
This bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to enter into contracts with U.S. entities to manufacture certain critical drugs within the United States and otherwise addresses drug manufacturing.
HHS must periodically report to Congress a list of drugs that are critical to public health or national security. The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority within HHS must enter into contracts for qualified U.S. entities to manufacture in the United States the drugs on this list (and ingredients for such drugs). The contracts must impose certain conditions, such as those requiring the manufacturing entity to (1) develop and maintain a redundancy risk management and continuity of business plan, and (2) commit to selling the drugs and ingredients manufactured under the contract at reasonable prices.
Beginning in FY2024, certain federal agencies (including the Department of Defense and the Bureau of Prisons) must, in procuring drugs on the HHS critical drugs list, give priority to high-quality drugs that are manufactured in the United States.
This bill also requires the Federal Trade Commission to submit annually to Congress a report on foreign investment in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry. The report must address, among other topics, the effect of the industry's reliance on foreign manufacturing.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on July 2, 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 2, 2020: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the Senate
- Passage by the House
- 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?
Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) introduced it on July 2, 2020, and 1 member has since signed on as a cosponsor.
They are 1 Democrat.
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 2, 2020, 2261 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 2261 days ago, on July 2, 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
- SenateIn committee, no floor vote yet
- HouseAwaits Senate passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers