[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 15 (Tuesday, January 26, 2021)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 7189-7191]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-01849]



[[Page 7187]]

Vol. 86

Tuesday,

No. 15

January 26, 2021

Part II





The President





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Executive Order 13994--Ensuring a Data-Driven Response to COVID-19 and 
Future High-Consequence Public Health Threats



Executive Order 13995--Ensuring an Equitable Pandemic Response and 
Recovery



Executive Order 13996--Establishing the COVID-19 Pandemic Testing Board 
and Ensuring a Sustainable Public Health Workforce for COVID-19 and 
Other Biological Threats



Executive Order 13997--Improving and Expanding Access to Care and 
Treatments for COVID-19



Executive Order 13998--Promoting COVID-19 Safety in Domestic and 
International Travel
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  Federal Register / Vol. 86 , No. 15 / Tuesday, January 26, 2021 / 
Presidential Documents  

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 Title 3--
 The President

[[Page 7189]]

                Executive Order 13994 of January 21, 2021

                
Ensuring a Data-Driven Response to COVID-19 and 
                Future High-Consequence Public Health Threats

                By the authority vested in me as President by the 
                Constitution and the laws of the United States of 
                America, it is hereby ordered as follows:

                Section 1. Policy. It is the policy of my 
                Administration to respond to the coronavirus disease 
                2019 (COVID-19) pandemic through effective approaches 
                guided by the best available science and data, 
                including by building back a better public health 
                infrastructure. This stronger public health 
                infrastructure must help the Nation effectively 
                prevent, detect, and respond to future biological 
                threats, both domestically and internationally.

                Consistent with this policy, the heads of all executive 
                departments and agencies (agencies) shall facilitate 
                the gathering, sharing, and publication of COVID-19-
                related data, in coordination with the Coordinator of 
                the COVID-19 Response and Counselor to the President 
                (COVID-19 Response Coordinator), to the extent 
                permitted by law, and with appropriate protections for 
                confidentiality, privacy, law enforcement, and national 
                security. These efforts shall assist Federal, State, 
                local, Tribal, and territorial authorities in 
                developing and implementing policies to facilitate 
                informed community decision-making, to further public 
                understanding of the pandemic and the response, and to 
                deter the spread of misinformation and disinformation.

                Sec. 2. Enhancing Data Collection and Collaboration 
                Capabilities for High-Consequence Public Health 
                Threats, Such as the COVID-19 Pandemic. (a) The 
                Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General, the 
                Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Labor, the 
                Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), the 
                Secretary of Education, the Director of the Office of 
                Management and Budget (OMB), the Director of National 
                Intelligence, the Director of the Office of Science and 
                Technology Policy (OSTP), and the Director of the 
                National Science Foundation shall each promptly 
                designate a senior official to serve as their agency's 
                lead to work on COVID-19- and pandemic-related data 
                issues. This official, in consultation with the COVID-
                19 Response Coordinator, shall take steps to make data 
                relevant to high-consequence public health threats, 
                such as the COVID-19 pandemic, publicly available and 
                accessible.

                    (b) The COVID-19 Response Coordinator shall, as 
                necessary, convene appropriate representatives from 
                relevant agencies to coordinate the agencies' 
                collection, provision, and analysis of data, including 
                key equity indicators, regarding the COVID-19 response, 
                as well as their sharing of such data with State, 
                local, Tribal, and territorial authorities.
                    (c) The Director of OMB, in consultation with the 
                Director of OSTP, the United States Chief Technology 
                Officer, and the COVID-19 Response Coordinator, shall 
                promptly review the Federal Government's existing 
                approaches to open data, and shall issue supplemental 
                guidance, as appropriate and consistent with applicable 
                law, concerning how to de-identify COVID-19-related 
                data; how to make data open to the public in human- and 
                machine-readable formats as rapidly as possible; and 
                any other topic the Director of OMB concludes would 
                appropriately advance the policy of this order. Any 
                guidance shall include appropriate protections for the 
                information described in section 5 of this order.
                    (d) The Director of the Office of Personnel 
                Management, in consultation with the Director of OMB, 
                shall promptly:

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(i) review the ability of agencies to hire personnel expeditiously into 
roles related to information technology and the collection, provision, 
analysis, or other use of data to address high-consequence public health 
threats, such as the COVID-19 pandemic; and

(ii) take action, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to 
support agencies in such efforts.

                Sec. 3. Public Health Data Systems. The Secretary of 
                HHS, in consultation with the COVID-19 Response 
                Coordinator and the heads of relevant agencies, shall 
                promptly:

                    (a) review the effectiveness, interoperability, and 
                connectivity of public health data systems supporting 
                the detection of and response to high-consequence 
                public health threats, such as the COVID-19 pandemic;
                    (b) review the collection of morbidity and 
                mortality data by State, local, Tribal, and territorial 
                governments during high-consequence public health 
                threats, such as the COVID-19 pandemic; and
                    (c) issue a report summarizing the findings of the 
                reviews detailed in subsections (a) and (b) of this 
                section and any recommendations for addressing areas 
                for improvement identified in the reviews.

                Sec. 4. Advancing Innovation in Public Health Data and 
                Analytics. The Director of OSTP, in coordination with 
                the National Science and Technology Council, as 
                appropriate, shall develop a plan for advancing 
                innovation in public health data and analytics in the 
                United States.

                Sec. 5. Privileged Information. Nothing in this order 
                shall compel or authorize the disclosure of privileged 
                information, law-enforcement information, national-
                security information, personal information, or 
                information the disclosure of which is prohibited by 
                law.

                Sec. 6. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order 
                shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or 
the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget 
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

                    (b) This order shall be implemented consistent with 
                applicable law and subject to the availability of 
                appropriations.

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                    (c) This order is not intended to, and does not, 
                create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, 
                enforceable at law or in equity by any party against 
                the United States, its departments, agencies, or 
                entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any 
                other person.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

                THE WHITE HOUSE,

                    January 21, 2021.

[FR Doc. 2021-01849
Filed 1-25-21; 11:15 am]
Billing code 3295-F1-P