Pandemic preparedness bill moves ahead; funding still needed

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Senate committee has approved a bipartisan blueprint to overhaul the nation’s public health system, applying the lessons of COVID-19 to future outbreaks through a new chain of command, a stronger medical supply chain, and clearer crisis communications.

The Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee approved the PREVENT Pandemics Act by a vote of 20-2 Tuesday.

But it's only a first step. If the ambitious vision does eventually pass Congress, lawmakers must still deliver the tens of billions of dollars it will take to translate it into reality and maintain focus after the coronavirus recedes. Right now, Congress is even having trouble meeting a White House request for additional funds to keep COVID-19 at bay the rest of this year.

“We owe it to everyone who has worked so hard to address the challenges of this pandemic to make sure (that) we are never in a situation like this again," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

She and ranking Republican Richard Burr of North Carolina worked for over a year on the contours of the bill, which also calls for a national task force modeled on the 9/11 Commission to investigate what went wrong in the coronavirus response and make recommendations to the president and Congress. And the legislation incorporates creation of a new advanced medical research and development agency — dubbed ARPA-H — that President Joe Biden has called for.

“The central issue facing us today is how can we better anticipate what threat we will face next, and innovate quickly enough to rise to the challenge," said Burr. “The future, unfortunately, is hard to predict."

The bill starts by formally placing responsibility for pandemic response — in Burr's words, “mission control” —...