Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress Senate Bill SB1085 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	II
2	2	119THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION S. 1085
5	5	To require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to implement a
6	6	pandemic preparedness and response program using artificial intelligence.
7	7	IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
8	8	MARCH14, 2025
9	9	Mr. R
10	10	OUNDS(for himself and Mr. HEINRICH) introduced the following bill;
11	11	which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Edu-
12	12	cation, Labor, and Pensions
13	13	A BILL
14	14	To require the Secretary of Health and Human Services
15	15	to implement a pandemic preparedness and response pro-
16	16	gram using artificial intelligence.
17	17	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
18	18	tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
19	19	SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
20	20	This Act may be cited as the ‘‘MedShield Act of 4
21	21	2025’’. 5
22	22	SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS. 6
23	23	(a) F
24	24	INDINGS.—Congress finds as follows: 7
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28	28	(1) The COVID–19 pandemic revealed the need 1
29	29	to better organize pathogen defense of the people of 2
30	30	the United States. 3
31	31	(2) The National Security Commission on Arti-4
32	32	ficial Intelligence concluded that COVID–19 sci-5
33	33	entific advancements, notably accelerated by the ap-6
34	34	plication of artificial intelligence, in addition to 7
35	35	many other existing science and technology initia-8
36	36	tives in the United States, should be used to build 9
37	37	a comprehensive, operational, and integrated bio-10
38	38	defense program that functions like a ‘‘shield’’ 11
39	39	against manmade and non-manmade pathogens. 12
40	40	(b) S
41	41	ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-13
42	42	gress that— 14
43	43	(1) an initiative such as Operation Warp Speed 15
44	44	should not be required for the next pandemic; 16
45	45	(2) there is a requirement for a pandemic pre-17
46	46	paredness and response program that would negate 18
47	47	the need for a future Operation Warp Speed-like 19
48	48	program or a declaration of a public health emer-20
49	49	gency under section 319 of the Public Health Serv-21
50	50	ice Act (42 U.S.C. 247d); and 22
51	51	(3) the program established under section 3 23
52	52	would operationalize artificial intelligence and a sys-24
53	53	tem-of-systems integration across the interagency 25
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57	57	and private sector, under the direction of the Sec-1
58	58	retary of Health and Human Services. 2
59	59	SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF MEDSHIELD PROGRAM. 3
60	60	(a) I
61	61	NGENERAL.—The Secretary of Health and 4
62	62	Human Services (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Sec-5
63	63	retary’’) shall implement a pandemic preparedness and re-6
64	64	sponse program utilizing artificial intelligence and other 7
65	65	relevant technologies, to be known as the ‘‘MedShield pro-8
66	66	gram’’ (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Program’’), in ac-9
67	67	cordance with recommendations of the National Security 10
68	68	Commission on Artificial Intelligence. The Program shall 11
69	69	operationalize a national medical shield that gathers inno-12
70	70	vations across the public-private ecosystem in the United 13
71	71	States, as well as from allies and partners, to improve the 14
72	72	efficiency and effectiveness of delivering medical solutions 15
73	73	to individuals, functioning as a shield against biological 16
74	74	threats. The Program shall continuously operate and mon-17
75	75	itor threats, for the purpose of safeguarding the public 18
76	76	health of the United States. 19
77	77	(b) P
78	78	LAN ANDINTEGRATION.—Pursuant to the Pro-20
79	79	gram, the Secretary shall— 21
80	80	(1) develop a plan to integrate the recommenda-22
81	81	tions of the National Security Commission on Artifi-23
82	82	cial Intelligence for pandemic preparedness and re-24
83	83	sponse, in accordance with the responsibilities of the 25
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87	87	Department of Health and Human Services as the 1
88	88	primary agency and coordinator for the emergency 2
89	89	support function relating to public health and med-3
90	90	ical services under the National Response Frame-4
91	91	work of the Federal Emergency Management Agen-5
92	92	cy; and 6
93	93	(2) consult with heads of appropriate Federal 7
94	94	agencies and select allies and partners to ensure the 8
95	95	integration of the Program between relevant depart-9
96	96	ments and agencies and international partners to 10
97	97	achieve a coordinated international effort to address 11
98	98	a pandemic. 12
99	99	(c) U
100	100	TILIZATION OFARTIFICIALINTELLIGENCE.—In 13
101	101	carrying out the Program, the Secretary shall leverage ar-14
102	102	tificial intelligence and other relevant technologies and ca-15
103	103	pabilities, including as follows: 16
104	104	(1) Development and deployment of a global 17
105	105	pathogen surveillance system for the real-time detec-18
106	106	tion and tracking of pathogens. 19
107	107	(2) Employment of artificial intelligence en-20
108	108	abled systems to accelerate the identification and de-21
109	109	velopment of effective vaccines. 22
110	110	(3) Development and deployment of therapeutic 23
111	111	treatments for individuals affected by biological 24
112	112	threats. 25
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116	116	(4) Advanced artificial intelligence-enabled mod-1
117	117	eling to optimize strategies for pathogen tracking, 2
118	118	vaccine distribution, and therapeutic interventions. 3
119	119	(5) Streamlining and enhancing rapid manufac-4
120	120	turing of vaccines and therapeutics. 5
121	121	SEC. 4. REPORTING. 6
122	122	Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment 7
123	123	of this Act, the Secretary shall submit to the Committee 8
124	124	on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and the Com-9
125	125	mittee on Appropriations of the Senate and the Committee 10
126	126	on Energy and Commerce and the Committee on Appro-11
127	127	priations of the House of Representatives a report detail-12
128	128	ing the plan required under section 3(b). Such report shall 13
129	129	be submitted in unclassified form, and may include a clas-14
130	130	sified annex. 15
131	131	SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS. 16
132	132	In this Act— 17
133	133	(1) the term ‘‘artificial intelligence’’ has the 18
134	134	meaning given such term in section 1051(f) of the 19
135	135	John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act 20
136	136	for Fiscal Year 2019 (Public Law 115–232; 132 21
137	137	Stat. 1962); 22
138	138	(2) the term ‘‘MedShield’’ has the meaning 23
139	139	given the term ‘‘BioShield’’ in the final report of the 24
140	140	Commission submitted under section 1051(c)(2) of 25
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144	144	the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization 1
145	145	Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (132 Stat. 1965; Public 2
146	146	Law 115–232); and 3
147	147	(3) the term ‘‘National Security Commission on 4
148	148	Artificial Intelligence’’ means such commission es-5
149	149	tablished under section 1051 of the John S. McCain 6
150	150	National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 7
151	151	2019 (132 Stat. 1962; Public Law 115–232). 8
152	152	SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 9
153	153	For purposes of carrying out the MedShield program, 10
154	154	there are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary— 11
155	155	(1) $300,000,000 for fiscal year 2025; 12
156	156	(2) $350,000,000 for fiscal year 2026; 13
157	157	(3) $400,000,000 for fiscal year 2027; 14
158	158	(4) $450,000,000 for fiscal year 2028; and 15
159	159	(5) $500,000,000 for fiscal year 2029, 16
160	160	to remain available until expended. 17
161	161	Æ
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