[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2590 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2590

 To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide additional funding 
        for the Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 27, 2023

  Mr. Wyden (for himself and Ms. Duckworth) introduced the following 
  bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, 
                     Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide additional funding 
        for the Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Public Health Service Commissioned 
Corps Operations and Readiness Act'' or the ``PHS COR Act''.

SEC. 2. FUNDING FOR COMMISSIONED CORPS OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE.

    Section 203 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 204) is 
amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(e) Operations of the Commissioned Corps of the Public Health 
Service.--
            ``(1) In general.--Subject to regulations prescribed by the 
        Secretary, the Deputy Surgeon General shall carry out duties 
        and responsibilities relating to the operations of the 
        Commissioned Corps of the Service, including the following:
                    ``(A) Enhance the processes and systems of the 
                Commissioned Corps Headquarters.
                    ``(B) Maximize the force management, operational 
                capacity, and mission readiness of the Regular Corps, 
                the Ready Reserve Corps, and the Public Health 
                Emergency Response Strike Teams, a subcomponent of the 
                Regular Corps.
                    ``(C) Recruit and retain qualified professionals 
                suited to serving underserved and vulnerable 
                communities by--
                            ``(i) enhancing onboarding timelines, 
                        providing officer placements to align with 
                        agency needs, and incentivizing recruiters and 
                        recruits; and
                            ``(ii) expanding training opportunities, 
                        providing credentialing support for high demand 
                        skill sets, and enriching leadership and 
                        research potential.
                    ``(D) Improve deployment processes and prepare 
                mission teams to execute routine and emergent public 
                health events.
                    ``(E) Establish a legislative liaison office to 
                carry out legislative affairs functions under the 
                direction of the Deputy Surgeon General.
            ``(2) Authorization of appropriations.--In addition to 
        amounts otherwise authorized to be appropriated for the 
        Commissioned Corps of the Service, there is authorized to be 
        appropriated to the Deputy Surgeon General to carry out 
        paragraph (1) $150,000,000 for fiscal year 2024 and each fiscal 
        year thereafter.''.
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