[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 119 (Monday, June 29, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3718-S3719]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 2274. 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 1 year 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;

[[Page S3719]]

       (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, in consultation with the National Security 
     Advisor and Director of the Office of Management and Budget, 
     as appropriate, 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) resource plans developed by each department and agency 
     with responsibility for biodefense to staff, support, and 
     sustain efforts to execute the Strategy within the 
     jurisdiction of such department or agency;
       (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) recommendations on 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 allocations 
     within individual agency budget submissions to the Office of 
     Management and Budget, aligned with the objectives in the 
     Strategy; and
       (D) not later than 6 months after the date of the 
     completion of the assessment in subsection (a)(1)(A), 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, as appropriate.
       (c) Definition.--In this section, the term ``appropriate 
     congressional committees'' means those committees described 
     in section 1086(f) of the National Defense Authorization Act 
     for Fiscal Year 2017 (6 U.S.C. 104(f)) as well as the 
     Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of 
     Representatives and the Select Committee on Intelligence of 
     the Senate.
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