II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 501
To require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop a strategy
for public health preparedness and response to artificial intelligence
threats, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY10, 2025
Mr. B
UDD(for himself and Mr. MARKEY) introduced the following bill; which
was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions
A BILL
To require the Secretary of Health and Human Services
to develop a strategy for public health preparedness and
response to artificial intelligence threats, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Strategy for Public 4
Health Preparedness and Response to Artificial Intel-5
ligence Threats’’. 6
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•S 501 IS
SEC. 2. STRATEGY FOR PUBLIC HEALTH PREPAREDNESS 1
AND RESPONSE TO ARTIFICIAL INTEL-2
LIGENCE THREATS. 3
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 4
(1) A
RTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.—The term ‘‘ar-5
tificial intelligence’’ has the meaning given the term 6
in section 238(g) of the John S. McCain National 7
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (10 8
U.S.C. note prec. 4061; Public Law 115–232). 9
(2) PHSA
DEFINITIONS.—The terms ‘‘qualified 10
countermeasure’’, ‘‘security countermeasure’’, and 11
‘‘qualified pandemic or epidemic product’’ have the 12
meanings given the terms in sections 319F–1(a)(2), 13
319F–2(c)(1)(B), and 319F–3(i), respectively, of the 14
Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 247d– 15
6a(a)(2); (42 U.S.C. 247d–6b(c)(1)(B); (42 U.S.C. 16
247d–6d(i)). 17
(3) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 18
the Secretary of Health and Human Services. 19
(b) S
TRATEGY FORPUBLICHEALTHPREPAREDNESS 20
ANDRESPONSE TO ARTIFICIALINTELLIGENCE 21
T
HREATS.— 22
(1) S
TRATEGY.—Not later than 180 days after 23
the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary, in 24
consultation with stakeholders, including stake-25
holders developing qualified countermeasures, secu-26
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•S 501 IS
rity countermeasures, or qualified pandemic or epi-1
demic products and stakeholders with an under-2
standing of artificial intelligence technologies, shall 3
prepare and submit to the relevant committees of 4
Congress a strategy for public health preparedness 5
and response and biodefense to address the risks of 6
misuse of artificial intelligence that present a threat 7
to national health security. 8
(2) I
NCLUSIONS.—The strategy under para-9
graph (1) shall include— 10
(A) a framework for public health pre-11
paredness and response to mitigate the risks of 12
misuse of artificial intelligence that present a 13
threat to national health security; 14
(B) identifying the duties, functions, and 15
preparedness goals for which the Secretary is 16
responsible in order to prepare for, respond to, 17
and mitigate the risks of such artificial intel-18
ligence threats, including metrics by which to 19
measure success in meeting preparedness and 20
risk mitigation goals; 21
(C) identifying gaps in public health capa-22
bilities to achieve such preparedness and risk 23
mitigation goals; 24
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(D) strategies to address identified gaps 1
and strengthen public health emergency pre-2
paredness and response capabilities to address 3
such artificial intelligence threats; and 4
(E) strategies to mitigate— 5
(i) the risks posed by the threat of the 6
misuse of artificial intelligence, at a min-7
imum of— 8
(I) the development of biological 9
weapons; and 10
(II) the design of viruses and 11
bacteria that are resistant to treat-12
ment; and 13
(ii) such other risks posed by the 14
threat of the misuse of artificial intel-15
ligence as are determined by the Secretary. 16
(3) P
ROTECTION OF NATIONAL SECURITY .— 17
The Secretary shall make the strategy under para-18
graph (1) available to the Committee on Health, 19
Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate, the 20
Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House 21
of Representatives, and other congressional commit-22
tees of jurisdiction, in a manner that does not com-23
promise national security. 24
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(c) COORDINATION OFPREPAREDNESS FOR AND RE-1
SPONSE TO ALL-HAZARDSPUBLICHEALTHEMER-2
GENCIES.—Section 2811(b)(4)(D) of the Public Health 3
Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300hh–10(b)(4)(D)) is amended— 4
(1) by striking ‘‘deployment of the Federal re-5
sponse’’ and inserting the following: ‘‘deployment 6
of— 7
‘‘(i) the Federal response’’; 8
(2) in clause (i) (as so designated), by striking 9
‘‘and such Federal responses’’ and inserting the fol-10
lowing: 11
‘‘(ii) such Federal responses’’; 12
(3) in clause (ii) (as so designated), by striking 13
the period at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 14
(4) by adding at the end the following: 15
‘‘(iii) such Federal responses covered 16
by the strategy for public health prepared-17
ness and response to address the risks of 18
misuse of artificial intelligence that present 19
a threat to national health security de-20
scribed in section 2(b) of the Strategy for 21
Public Health Preparedness and Response 22
to Artificial Intelligence Threats.’’. 23
Æ
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