A bipartisan bill was recently unveiled by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. The bill, known as the “Pandemic and Public Health Preparedness and Response Act,” was released by the HELP Committee’s chair, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), and ranking member, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC).
In light of the current crisis effecting the laboratory and healthcare workforces, one of the provisions that may be of greatest interest is the bill’s goal to help “Revitalize the Public and Community Health Workforce.” In a joint statement, Senators Murray and Burr recognized the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on the healthcare workforce.
In addition to addressing workforce issues, the bill addresses a number of other issues ASCP addressed in its
National COVID-19 Testing and Support Strategy, such as:
• Improving our national capabilities to detect and monitor emerging infectious disease and other threats, including updating public health data to quickly provide comprehensive, actionable insight during public health emergencies;
• Enhancing the development and review of rests, treatments, and vaccines, and mitigate critical shortages of medical products; and
• Strengthening supply chain and government stockpiles of medical products, such as masks, drugs, vaccines, and tests.
ASCP will be submitting comments on the importance of laboratory testing and a robust laboratory workforce to pandemic preparedness and response.
To read more articles from this issue of ePolicy, click
here. To learn more about ePolicy News and access past newsletters and articles, click
here.
For more information regarding ASCP's advocacy initiatives and policy positions, please contact ASCP's Center for Public Policy at (202) 408-1110.
ASCP ePolicy News is supported by an unrestricted grant from Hologic.
