House approves DeGette legislation to strengthen Strategic National Stockpile

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. House voted today to approve a major piece of legislation – known as the America COMPETES Act – which seeks to strengthen U.S. global competitiveness by improving the nation's supply chains and increasing its ability to make more critical products in America.

The legislation includes a key provision originally introduced by U.S. Reps. Diana DeGette (D-CO) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) to strengthen the nation's Strategic National Stockpile by ensuring it has the items and equipment needed to respond to future health emergencies.

The measure would, among other things, require federal officials to conduct more regular maintenance and inspections of the national stockpile to ensure it has the items health officials need to respond to future crises, and that those items have not yet expired. It would, specifically, authorize officials to remove and replace any items that are less than one year from their expiration date; and it would create a new pilot program to boost domestic manufacturing of some of the most critical supplies – including personal protective equipment and the supplies needed to administer vaccines – to reduce America's dependence on foreign manufacturers during future pandemics.

"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 Strategic National Stockpile is a repository of critical supplies and medicines maintained by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that states, territories, tribal nations and major metropolitan areas can access during a public health emergency.

In 2020, however, during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the national stockpile was unable to fulfill several states' requests for critical supplies, such as personal protective equipment and ventilators, because the stockpile either didn't have the items on hand, or the items they had were expired.

In May 2021, in an effort to strengthen the stockpile and ensure it has the items and equipment needed to respond to future health emergencies, DeGette and Slotkin introduced legislation – known as the Strengthening America's Strategic National Stockpile Act (H.R. 3635) – which would:

• Require regular inspections of the national stockpile to ensure all items and supplies being held are not outdated or expired.
• Establish a $500 million pilot program to increase domestic manufacturing of personal protective equipment and other critical medical supplies to reduce America's dependence on foreign sources of such supplies during future health crises.
• Require HHS to provide states clearer guidelines on how to request supplies and equipment they need during a crisis.
• Establish an HHS pilot program to help states create, expand and maintain their own strategic stockpiles. And authorizes up to $3.5 billion per year, for the next three years, to ensure states have the equipment and items they need in their own stockpiles to respond to future health emergencies.
• Authorize Congress to appropriate up to $705 million per year for the Strategic National Stockpile for the next three years, up from its current authorization of $610 million per year.

The legislation, which has now been included and approved as part of the America COMPETES Act, heads to the Senate as part of the broader bill for consideration.

A section-by-section summary of the America COMPETES Act is available here.

More information on the provisions to strengthen the Strategic National Stockpile can be found on page 30 of the summary, which is available here.