Bill > HR8205

This bill, the Ensuring Transparent Honest Information on COVID–19 Act or the ETHIC Act, aims to improve public health data systems and reporting related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The key provisions are: 1. The bill requires state, local, tribal, and territorial governments receiving certain COVID-19 funding to report daily and weekly data on COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, testing, and other key metrics to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This data must be made publicly available. 2. The bill directs the CDC to expand and enhance its public health data systems, and provides grants to state, local, tribal, and territorial health departments to modernize their data infrastructure and reporting. 3. The bill establishes a core public health infrastructure program to award grants to state, local, tribal, and territorial health departments to address their public health capacity gaps, including workforce, laboratory systems, disease surveillance, and other areas. 4. The bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services to commission a study from the National Academies on the current public health data systems and infrastructure, and recommendations for improvements needed for future pandemics and ongoing public health needs. 5. The bill directs the Indian Health Service to conduct research on health inequities among tribal populations, including disparities related to COVID-19, in coordination with tribal stakeholders. Overall, the bill aims to strengthen public health data collection, reporting, and infrastructure at the federal, state, local, and tribal levels to improve pandemic preparedness and response.

Business and Industry, Government Affairs

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/8205/all-info