[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 8444 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 8444

 To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to enter into an 
    agreement with the National Academy of Medicine under which the 
   National Academy agrees to conduct a one-year study assessing the 
 effectiveness of current vital statistics reporting and data sharing 
  between State, local, and Federal agencies, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 30, 2020

Mr. Taylor (for himself and Ms. Shalala) introduced the following bill; 
       which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to enter into an 
    agreement with the National Academy of Medicine under which the 
   National Academy agrees to conduct a one-year study assessing the 
 effectiveness of current vital statistics reporting and data sharing 
  between State, local, and Federal agencies, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; FINDINGS.

    (a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Vital 
Standardization of Thoughtful Administrative Techniques and Statistics 
Act of 2020'' or the ``Vital STATS Act of 2020''.
    (b) Findings.--The Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Pandemic and highly infectious diseases have the 
        ability to rapidly cross international and State boundaries, 
        can infect millions of individuals in the United States, and 
        have the potential to severely disrupt interstate commerce.
            (2) During the outbreak of COVID-19, the disease 
        substantially affected interstate commerce and touched all 50 
        States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto 
        Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, and the 
        Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
            (3) The COVID-19 pandemic in the United States highlights 
        the necessity of accurate and timely vital statistics and death 
        reporting for a successful public health response.
            (4) Variations between means and methods of vital 
        statistics reporting between State, local, and Federal entities 
        can create administrative hurdles, including potential 
        backlogs, and could hamper public health response efforts.
            (5) In order for the Nation to combat future health 
        emergencies, to improve our general understanding of health 
        problems in the United States, and to ensure the sharing of 
        timely, accurate health information, the Federal Government, 
        State governments, and local units of government must improve 
        their means of coordinating and sharing health information and 
        vital statistics.

SEC. 2. STUDY ON EFFECTIVENESS OF VITAL STATISTICS REPORTING.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall 
enter into an agreement with the National Academy of Medicine under 
which the National Academy agrees to conduct a one-year study assessing 
the effectiveness of current vital statistics reporting and data 
sharing between State, local, and Federal agencies and the degree to 
which there is divergence between State, local, and Federal vital 
statistics reporting.
    (b) Report.--The agreement entered into under subsection (a) shall 
require the National Academy of Medicine to, not later 1 year after the 
date on which the agreement is entered into, to submit to Congress a 
report containing the findings of the study conducted pursuant to such 
subsection. Such report shall include recommendations with respect to--
            (1) coordination and standardization of State, local, and 
        Federal vital statistics reporting methods, including the 
        efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of such reporting; 
        and
            (2) the feasibility of setting national standards for death 
        reporting and collecting vital statistics.
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