Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused extraordinary challenges for our Nation's public health system and put a spotlight on longstanding gaps in public health preparedness. Our Nation's public health system needs accurate, timely, and high-quality data to protect the public from emerging health threats and to respond to existing public health emergencies.

For far too long, gaps in data infrastructure have prevented policymakers and public health officials from quickly translating public health data into their decisionmaking. Outdated and inconsistent public health data systems have made it hard for Federal, State, local, Tribal, and territorial public health departments to get a full picture of the COVID-19 crisis. In turn, these data gaps have made it difficult for public health departments to tailor their responses. Specifically, inconsistent definitions of data, ambiguous reporting requirements, and data accessibility issues have hindered the U.S. response to the COVID- 19 pandemic and prevented the timely communication of public health data.

We know that effective pandemic prevention and response requires coordinated efforts between public health officials across all levels of government. Today, I am pleased to introduce with my colleagues, Senators Baldwin, Smith, and Murphy, the Improving Data Accessibility Through Advancements in Public Health Act, or the Improving DATA in Public Health Act, to use the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure that our Nation's public health system has the data capabilities to address and prevent future pandemics.

The Improving DATA in Public Health Act amends public health data systems' modernization provisions in current law by establishing a timeline for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to disseminate data standards to improve the exchange of electronic public health data. The bill also directs the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to expand the access, exchange, and use of public health data by improving data sharing between Federal Agencies and State and local public health systems when preparing for, identifying, monitoring, and responding to public health emergencies.

The Improving DATA in Public Health Act also expands upon existing data modernization efforts by commissioning a study on improving electronic data standards and reporting between laboratories and public health data systems. Finally, the legislation calls for the development of best practices to improve the quality and completeness of demographic data to support equitable public health responses.

The Improving DATA in Public Health Act will strengthen our public health data systems and take commonsense steps to improve our ability to prevent and respond to future pandemics. ______

By Mr. HEINRICH (for himself and Ms. Collins):

S. 3918. A bill to establish programs to improve family economic security by breaking the cycle of multigenerational poverty, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

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