The America COMPETES Act (H.R. 4521) from U.S. Reps. Diana DeGette (D-CO) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), advanced last week by the House, proposes increased domestic competitiveness and oversight through greater maintenance and inspection of the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS).
“If there’s one thing we’ve learned in responding to these global health crises over the years is that time is of the essence,” DeGette said. “No one knows if, or when, the next public health emergency will occur, but the time to prepare for it is now. By taking these important steps to strengthen our Strategic National Stockpile, we will ensure that we have the equipment and supplies needed to quickly and effectively respond to any future emergencies when they arise.”
The SNS is where the federal government stores critical supplies and medicines that can be distributed to states, territories, tribal nations, and major metropolitan centers during public health emergencies. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the stockpile has been the focus of much legislative attention, however, as it stumbled to provide for states’ requests, including personal protective equipment and ventilators, owing to expired or nonexistent stores.
Thus, DeGette and Slotkin have pushed to require more regular maintenance and inspections of the national stockpile by federal officials to guarantee its supplies’ usefulness. If passed, America COMPETES would allow these officials to remove and replace any items less than one year from their expiration date and start a new, $500 million pilot program to increase domestic manufacturing of supplies deemed most critical to health responses.
The legislation includes an earlier bill, the Strengthening America’s Strategic National Stockpile Act of 2021 (H.R. 3635), which would also require clearer guidelines for states on how to request supplies and equipment from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) during times of crisis. Another HHS pilot program would be mandated to assist states in creating, expanding, and maintaining individual strategic stockpiles, with up to $3.5 billion backing this effort up over three years.
For the SNS itself, the legislation would also authorize Congress to provide up to $705 million per year for the next three years. This would be an increase over current authorizations, which cap at $610 million per year.
Having advanced through the House, the legislation now heads to the Senate for consideration.