42 U.S.C. § 300hh–1 — National Health Security Strategy

(a) In general

(1) Preparedness and response regarding public health emergencies: Starting in 2018, and every four years after that, the Secretary^* must prepare and send Congress's relevant committees a coordinated strategy — called the National Health Security Strategy — along with any revisions and an implementation plan for public health emergency preparedness and response. This Strategy must describe potential health-security threats and identify the process for reaching the preparedness goals in (b), so the country can identify and respond to those threats. It must line up with the national preparedness goal (section 314(a)(19) of title 6), the National Incident Management System (section 311(7) of title 6), and the National Response Plan under section 314 of title 6, or any successor plan.

(2) Evaluation of progress: The Strategy must evaluate the progress made by federal, state^*, local, and tribal governments, based on the evidence-based benchmarks and objective standards for preparedness set under section 247d–3a(g). This evaluation must include, both nationally and broken down by state, how much awarded funding was spent by major category (as the Secretary defines those categories) for activities funded under sections 247d–3a and 247d–3b, and an analysis of any changes made to the benchmarks and standards under those two sections.

(3) Public health workforce: In 2022, the Strategy must also include a national strategy for building an effective, prepared public health workforce. This covers defining the workforce's functions, capabilities, and gaps (including gaps in the environmental-health and animal-health workforces, where relevant), describing the workforce's current status, identifying ways to recruit, keep, and protect the workforce from workplace exposures during public health emergencies, and identifying current capability to meet the requirements of section 300hh–2.

(b) Preparedness goals

The Strategy must include provisions supporting each of the following:

(1) Integration: Combining public health and public/private medical capabilities with other first-responder systems, through (A) regularly testing federal, state, local, and tribal preparedness and response through drills and exercises, including exercises for surprise events that need medical surge capacity; and (B) integrating public and private-sector public health and medical donations and volunteers.

(2) Public health: Building and maintaining essential federal, state, local, and tribal public health security capabilities, including (A) disease situational awareness at home and abroad — detection, identification, investigation, and related information technology; (B) disease containment — isolation, quarantine, social distancing, decontamination, relevant health care services and supplies, and transporting and disposing of medical waste; (C) risk communication and public preparedness; (D) fast distribution and administration of medical countermeasures; and (E) responding to environmental hazards.

(3) Medical: Increasing the preparedness, response capability, and surge capacity of hospitals, other health care facilities (including pharmacies, mental health facilities, ambulatory care facilities, and possibly dental facilities), and trauma, critical care, and emergency medical service^* systems for public health emergencies, including their availability, accessibility, and coordination. This means developing plans for (A) strengthening emergency medical and trauma management and treatment^*; (B) fatality management; (C) coordinated medical triage and evacuation to the right medical facility based on patient need, considering regionalized care systems; (D) fast distribution and administration of medical countermeasures; (E) making effective use of available public and private mobile medical assets (which can include dental assets) and integrating other federal assets; (F) protecting health care workers and first responders from workplace exposures during a public health emergency, or from exposure to agents that could cause one; and (G) building a coordinated, flexible approach to emergency response and medical surge capacity across hospitals, health facilities, critical care, trauma care, and emergency medical systems.

(4) At-risk individuals: (A) Accounting for the public health and medical needs of at-risk individuals — including the unique needs of people with disabilities — during a public health emergency. (B) In this chapter, "at-risk individuals" means children, pregnant women, senior citizens, and other people who have access or functional needs during a public health emergency, as the Secretary determines.

(5) Coordination: Cutting down duplication, and making sure federal, state, local, and tribal planning, preparedness, and response activities are coordinated — including through the State Emergency Management Assistance Compact and other applicable compacts — consistent with the National Response Plan (or its successor), the National Incident Management System, and the National Preparedness Goal.

(6) Continuity of operations: Keeping essential public health and medical services running, so federal, state, local, and tribal governments can operate as well as possible during a public health emergency.

(7) Countermeasures: (A) Promoting strategies to advance countermeasures that diagnose, reduce, prevent, or treat harm from any biological agent or toxin, or chemical, radiological, or nuclear agent, whether it occurs naturally, by accident, or on purpose. (B) In this paragraph, "countermeasures" means the same as "qualified countermeasures" under section 247d–6a, "qualified pandemic and epidemic products" under section 247d–6d, and "security countermeasures" under section 247d–6b.

(8) Medical and public health community resiliency: Strengthening the ability of states and local and tribal communities to prepare for, respond to, and recover from public health emergencies — whether natural, accidental, or deliberate — by (A) fitting medical and public health preparedness and response planning and capabilities into everyday, routine activities, and (B) building familiarity with local medical and public health systems.

(9) Zoonotic disease, food, and agriculture: Improving coordination among federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial governments — including by consulting the Secretary of Agriculture — to prevent, detect, and respond to outbreaks of plant or animal disease, including zoonotic disease, that could threaten national security through a deliberate attack, a natural threat, intentional food contamination, or other public health threats. This must account for how animal health, human health, and the environment they share connect directly to public health emergency preparedness and response, as applicable.

(10) Global health security: Assessing current or potential health-security threats from abroad, to inform domestic public health preparedness and response capabilities.