Premier Comments on Bipartisan Senate Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act Proposal

Premier responded to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee’s bipartisan draft legislation to reauthorize the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA). In its comments, Premier expressed support for themes within the discussion draft related to public-private collaboration, bidirectional data sharing, the need to standardize and modernize data collection, and focus on individuals with disabilities. However, Premier urged the committee to reconsider bolder, bigger, and more impactful policies for inclusion in a revised discussion draft prior to markup that heed the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, Premier urged Congress to broaden the scope of legislation to fundamentally change the way the nation responds to emergencies including through policies to increase supply chain resiliency and modernize clinical surveillance, among other recommendations.