[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 132 (Monday, July 27, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4507-S4508]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTION

      By Mr. ROMNEY (for himself, Mr. Manchin, Mr. Young, Ms. Sinema, 
        Mrs. Capito, Mr. Jones, Mr. Alexander, Mr. King, Mr. Portman, 
        Mr. Warner, Mr. Perdue, Mr. Cornyn, Ms. McSally, Mr. Rounds, 
        and Mr. Sullivan):
  S. 4323. A bill to save and strengthen critical social contract 
programs of the Federal Government; to the Committee on Finance.
  Mr. ROMNEY. Mr. President, I rise today to propose the TRUST Act of 
2020. This is bipartisan legislation. It is sponsored by 14 other 
Senators, both Democrats and Republicans, and supported by 30 Members 
from each party from the House.
  Its purpose is to preserve the Social Security and Medicare trust 
funds, among others, both of which have been pushed closer to 
bankruptcy due to the pandemic. The Committee for a Responsible Federal 
Budget projects that Medicare Part A will now become insolvent in only 
4 years, and the Social Security retirement trust fund by 2031.
  Under the law, insolvency would trigger drastic benefit cuts, or, if 
approved by a future Congress, draconian tax hikes. Our TRUST Act is 
designed to save these trust funds in addition to other vital Federal 
trust funds.
  The TRUST Act also addresses our ballooning national debt, a burden 
which has become even greater due to the COVID-19 crisis. The CBO 
projects that the Federal budget deficit will be $3.7 trillion this 
year. Our national debt will exceed $27 trillion. That could eventually 
mean backbreaking interest payments, runaway inflation, or national 
financial calamity.
  Modeled loosely after the Simpson-Bowles fiscal commission, the TRUST 
Act would create a process to rescue these funds. Under the bill, an 
individual rescue committee would be created for each of the trust 
funds. Each committee would be tasked with drafting bipartisan 
legislation that would provide for its solvency.
  Members of the rescue committees would come equally from the House 
and the Senate and equally from each party. If the majority of a 
committee supported a solvency plan and if at least two members from 
each party endorsed that plan, it would be brought, on an expedited 
basis, to the floor.
  The TRUST Act has strong bipartisan consensus among Senators and 
Members of the House, as well as policy advocates across the political 
spectrum, from Freedom Works to the Brookings Institution, as well as 
from Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles
  This is the right time to act. Our trust funds are approaching 
insolvency even more rapidly due to the pandemic. More importantly, if 
we don't act now, it will never happen before we face an overwhelming 
crisis. One of the lessons the COVID-19 crisis has taught us is that it 
is far better to prepare and hopefully prevent a crisis than to wait 
for a crisis to fall upon us.
  The TRUST Act is the only bipartisan, bicameral solution that has 
been proposed to save our trust funds and to restore fiscal stability. 
I urge this body to work in good faith to advance this proposal as part 
of additional pandemic relief
                                 ______
                                 
      By Mr. SCHUMER (for himself, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Brown, Ms. Baldwin, 
        Mr. Durbin, Mr. Casey, Ms. Rosen, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Leahy, Mr. 
        Reed, Mr. Van Hollen, Ms. Smith, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. 
        Blumenthal, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Kaine, Ms. Warren, Mr. Heinrich, 
        Ms. Harris, Mr. Udall, Mr. Markey, Mr. Merkley, Mrs. 
        Gillibrand, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Cardin, Ms. Stabenow, Mr. 
        Booker, Mr. Wyden, Ms. Duckworth, Mrs. Shaheen, and Mr. 
        Bennet):
  S. 4328. A bill to require the Comptroller General of the United 
States to conduct a study and report on data quality, sharing, 
transparency, access, and analysis; to the Committee on Health, 
Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of 
the bill be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be 
printed in the Record, as follows:

                                S. 4328

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

     SECTION 1. PROTECTING DATA QUALITY, SHARING, TRANSPARENCY, 
                   ACCESS, AND ANALYSIS.

       (a) Inquiry and Submission of Findings.--
       (1) In general.--Not later than 7 days after the date of 
     the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the 
     United States (referred to in this section as the 
     ``Comptroller General'') shall initiate an inquiry into any 
     changes or interruptions in data quality, sharing, 
     transparency, access, and analysis resulting from the changes 
     to COVID-19 hospital data reporting requirements initiated by 
     the White House Coronavirus Task Force and the Department of 
     Health and Human Services on July 13, 2020.
       (2) Submission of findings.--Not later than 45 days after 
     initiation of such inquiry, the Comptroller General shall 
     present its findings to the Committee on Health, Education, 
     Labor, and Pensions of the Senate, the Committee on Energy 
     and Commerce of the House of Representatives, and the 
     Department of Health and Human Services, in oral briefings, 
     which shall detail--

[[Page S4508]]

       (A) what is known about any changes or interruptions in 
     data quality, sharing, transparency, access to data, and 
     analysis or access to relevant analytics, including whether 
     such changes increased, decreased, expedited, or delayed such 
     quality, sharing, transparency, access, and analysis or 
     access to relevant analytics, for--
       (i) the public;
       (ii) State, local, Tribal, and territorial health 
     departments;
       (iii) hospitals; or
       (iv) Federal agency officials, including officials within 
     the Department of Health and Human Services and Centers for 
     Disease Control and Prevention; and
       (B) what is known about whether there was any impact to, or 
     interruptions in, delivery of supplies, including personal 
     protective equipment, ventilators, and COVID-19 therapeutics, 
     to States or other entities resulting from changes to COVID-
     19 hospital data reporting requirements described in 
     paragraph (1).
       (b) Access to Reporting System.--For purposes of the review 
     required under this section or any other audit, evaluation, 
     or investigation authorized by law, the Secretary shall, 
     within 7 days of the date of enactment of this Act, provide 
     the Comptroller General with direct access to the systems 
     used for the reporting of information referred to in this 
     section, including to all information collected, stored, 
     analyzed, processed, or produced in or through such systems 
     used for such purposes. For purposes of this subsection, the 
     term ``direct access'' means secured access to the 
     information technology systems maintained by the Department 
     of Health and Human Services that enables the Comptroller 
     General to independently access, view, download and retrieve 
     data from such systems.
       (c) Addressing Issues.--Not later than 7 days after the 
     Comptroller General submits the findings to Congress under 
     subsection (a)(2), the Secretary of Health and Human Services 
     shall address data quality, sharing, transparency, access, 
     and analysis, and access to relevant analytics for the 
     public; State, local, Tribal, and territorial health 
     departments; hospitals; and Federal agency officials, 
     including officials within the Department of Health and Human 
     Services and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to 
     fully correct any decreases or delays reported under 
     subsection (a)(2) by the Comptroller General and ensure that 
     data quality, sharing, transparency, access, and analysis or 
     access to relevant analytics are equal to or better than they 
     were as of July 12, 2020.
       (d) Report.--Not later than 18 months after the date of 
     enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General shall submit 
     to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of 
     the Senate and the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the 
     House of Representatives, a report regarding the impact of 
     changes to COVID-19 hospital data reporting requirements 
     initiated by the White House Coronavirus Task Force and the 
     Department of Health and Human Services on July 13, 2020. In 
     preparing such report, the Comptroller General shall collect 
     information from relevant stakeholders, as appropriate. Such 
     report shall--
       (1) detail any known changes or interruptions in data 
     quality, sharing, transparency, access, and analysis or 
     access to relevant analytics for the entities described in 
     subsection (a)(2)(A), including whether such changes 
     ultimately increased, decreased, expedited, or delayed data 
     quality, sharing, transparency, access, and analysis or 
     access to relevant analytics;
       (2) describe challenges faced by hospitals, States, 
     localities, Indian Tribes (as defined in section 4 of the 
     Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 
     U.S.C. 5304)), urban Indian organizations (as defined in 
     section 4 of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (25 
     U.S.C. 1603)), territories, Federal agencies, and the public 
     resulting from such changes;
       (3) describe the extent to which such changes may allow for 
     manipulation of the data in a manner that results in 
     hospitals, States, localities, Indian Tribes (as defined in 
     section 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and Education 
     Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304)), urban Indian organizations 
     (as defined in section 4 of the Indian Health Care 
     Improvement Act (25 U.S.C. 1603)), territories, Federal 
     agencies, and the public receiving different information than 
     what was provided to the Department of Health and Human 
     Services;
       (4) assess the extent to which such changes increased or 
     decreased the number of hospitals reporting data and the 
     completeness and quality of data reported by hospitals;
       (5) determine whether any States deployed the National 
     Guard to assist in hospital data reporting, as suggested in 
     communications from the White House Coronavirus Task Force 
     and the Department of Health and Human Services on July 13, 
     2020, and whether any such deployment had a measurable effect 
     on the speed, content, or quality of such reporting;
       (6) describe the decision-making process within the 
     Department of Health and Human Services that led to the 
     changes initiated on July 13, 2020, including--
       (A) the role of the Centers for Disease Control and 
     Prevention in such decision-making;
       (B) any analysis conducted by the Department of Health and 
     Human Services or the Centers for Disease Control and 
     Prevention that assessed the quality and completeness of 
     different data streams (including the National Healthcare 
     Safety Network, TeleTracking, data reported by States to the 
     Protect System of the Department of Health and Human 
     Services), prior to July 13, 2020;
       (C) any external input into the decision-making process, 
     including from other Federal agencies, States, localities, 
     Indian Tribes (as defined in section 4 of the Indian Self-
     Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304)), 
     urban Indian organizations (as defined in section 4 of the 
     Indian Health Care Improvement Act (25 U.S.C. 1603)), 
     territories, or hospitals;
       (D) the public health justification for the changes; and
       (E) any other justification for such changes; and
       (7) assess the process used to address any decreases or 
     delays in data quality, sharing, transparency, access to 
     data, and analysis and access to relevant analytics as 
     required under subsection (c).
       (e) Interim Report.--Not later than 6 months after the date 
     of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General shall 
     submit to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 
     Pensions of the Senate and the Committee on Energy and 
     Commerce of the House of Representatives an interim report 
     providing information on initial findings under subsection 
     (d).

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