Hospitals and the Centers for Disease Control would gain more tools to prepare for disease outbreaks, under a bill scheduled for a House vote next week.
The bill authored by Indiana Republican Susan Brooks renews several health-readiness programs, but changes how some money is spent. Health agencies would be able to respond immediately to emergencies instead of having to run to Congress for funding. And the bill borrows Indiana’s model to focus on regional planning instead of individual hospitals.
The bill also orders weekly reports on children separated from their parents at the border, and would require the Department of Health and Human Services to submit a formal strategy for reuniting those families. An estimated one-thousand parents and 26-hundred children are still separated.