[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 117 (Thursday, June 25, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3414-S3415]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 1933. Mr. PETERS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by 
him to the bill S. 4049, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 
2021 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military 
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, 
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for 
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

       At the appropriate place, insert the following:

     SEC. __. NATIONAL BIODEFENSE STRATEGY UPDATES.

       (a) Updated Biodefense Threat Assessment.--
       (1) In general.--The Secretary of Homeland Security, in 
     consultation with the Secretary of State, the Secretary of 
     Defense, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of 
     Health and Human Services, and the Director of National 
     Intelligence, shall--
       (A) conduct an assessment of current and potential 
     biological threats against the United States, both naturally 
     occurring and man-made, either accidental or deliberate, 
     including the potential for catastrophic biological threats 
     on the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic or greater;
       (B) not later than 6 months after the date of enactment of 
     this section, submit the findings of the assessment conducted 
     under subparagraph (A) to the Federal officials described in 
     subsection (b)(1);
       (C) not later than 30 days of the date on which the 
     assessment is submitted under subparagraph (B), conduct a 
     briefing for the appropriate congressional committees on the 
     findings of the assessment;
       (D) update the assessment under subparagraph (A) biennially 
     as appropriate, and provide the findings of such updated 
     assessments to the Federal officials described in subsection 
     (b)(1); and
       (E) conduct briefings for the appropriate congressional 
     committees as needed any time an assessment under this 
     paragraph is updated.
       (2) Classification and format.--Assessments under paragraph 
     (1) shall be submitted in an unclassified format and include 
     a classified annex.
       (b) Updated Implementation Plan for National Biodefense 
     Strategy.--
       (1) In general.--The Secretary of Health and Human 
     Services, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of 
     Agriculture, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and all 
     other Departments and agencies with responsibilities for 
     biodefense shall jointly--
       (A) consider the assessment in subsection (a);
       (B) seek input from relevant external stakeholders;
       (C) provide an updated comprehensive Implementation Plan 
     for the National Biodefense Strategy (referred to in this 
     section as the ``Strategy''), under section 1086 of the 
     National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 (6 
     U.S.C. 104), which shall include--
       (i) short-, medium-, and long-term goals and objectives for 
     executing the Strategy;
       (ii) metrics for meeting each objective of the Strategy;
       (iii) the specific roles and responsibilities of each 
     relevant Federal agency in the execution of the Strategy;
       (iv) a resource plan to staff, support, and sustain efforts 
     to execute the Strategy;
       (v) guidance on the decision-making process for individual 
     agency budgets and for identifying and enforcing enterprise-
     wide decisions and priorities under the Strategy;
       (vi) guidance and methods for analyzing the data collected 
     from relevant agencies, including ensuring that non-Federal 
     resources and capabilities are accounted for in analysis 
     under the Strategy; and
       (vii) guidance for identifying biodefense spending 
     allotments within individual agency budget submissions to the 
     Office of Management and Budget, aligned with the objectives 
     in the Strategy; and
       (D) not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of 
     this section, submit such Implementation Plan to the 
     appropriate congressional committees.
       (2) Classification and format.--Assessments under paragraph 
     (1) shall be submitted in an unclassified format and include 
     a classified annex.
       (c) Portal for Reporting Biodefense Readiness 
     Information.--
       (1) In general.--The Secretary of Health and Human Services 
     shall--
       (A) establish a public-facing website that publishes, and 
     updates on a monthly basis--
       (i) each objective in the Strategy;
       (ii) the specific Federal agencies responsible for meeting 
     each objective;
       (iii) the metrics for each objective; and
       (iv) the previous efforts and current status of efforts to 
     meet each objective, using, at a minimum, the metric 
     described in clause (iii), and including whether or not the 
     objective has been achieved; and
       (B) annually submit to the appropriate congressional 
     committees a report detailing the implementation status of 
     the Strategy.
       (2) Publication of progress.--Each agency with 
     responsibilities within the Strategy shall routinely submit 
     their progress on meeting each objective described in 
     paragraph (1) to the Secretary of Health and Human Services 
     to be published on the website.
       (d) Definition.--In this section, the term ``appropriate 
     congressional committees'' means those committees described 
     in section

[[Page S3415]]

     1086(f) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 
     Year 2017 (6 U.S.C. 104(f)).
                                 ______