Having kicked the can down the road once again, like clockwork, Washington’s politicians are scurrying around like ants to throw together a spending package that kicks the can down the road even further, by suspending the debt ceiling, giving the federal government more funding, and slipping in a myriad of items that hardly if anyone had a chance to read.
GOP Speaker of the House Mike Johnson introduced a 1,547-page continuing resolution (CR) spending package on December 17th, called the American Relief Act of 2024 – a bill that is worth hundreds of billions of dollars in funding. Today is the final day it must pass, lest there be a government shutdown.
Per usual, there are debates on all sides demanding that certain things be added in or taken out. Incoming President Donald Trump and soon-to-be Vice President JD Vance got involved to apparently get the ball rolling.
Eventually a deal was reached. On Truth Social, Trump described the package as “a very good deal for the American People,” and praised the debt ceiling being suspended once again until 2027.
According to Breitbart, ‘The new spending deal includes a three-month clean extension of current spending levels, a one-year farm bill extension, $110 billion in disaster aid, and – as Trump requested – a two-year suspension of the debt limit until January 2027.’
The conservative outlet added, however, ‘Most of the pork in the bill was stripped, much to the consternation of Washington’s lobbyists.’
But notwithstanding, an intriguing chunk of the new bill contains a large section titled, “PANDEMIC AND ALL-HAZARDS PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE.” The different subsections include:
Sec. 601. Short title.
Subtitle A—State and Local Readiness and Response
Sec. 611. Temporary reassignment of State and local personnel during a public
health emergency.
Sec. 612. Public Health Emergency Preparedness program.
Sec. 613. Hospital Preparedness Program.
Sec. 614. Facilities and capacities of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to combat public health security threats.
Sec. 615. Pilot program to support State medical stockpiles.
Sec. 616. Enhancing domestic wastewater surveillance for pathogen detection.
Sec. 617. Reauthorization of Mosquito Abatement for Safety and Health program.
Subtitle B—Federal Planning and Coordination
Sec. 621. All-Hazards Emergency Preparedness and Response.
Sec. 622. National Health Security Strategy.
Sec. 623. Improving development and distribution of diagnostic tests.
Sec. 624. Combating antimicrobial resistance.
Sec. 625. Strategic National Stockpile and material threats.
Sec. 626. Medical countermeasures for viral threats with pandemic potential.
Sec. 627. Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise.
Sec. 628. Fellowship and training programs.
Sec. 629. Regional biocontainment research laboratories.
Sec. 629A. Limitation related to countries of concern conducting certain research.
Subtitle C—Addressing the Needs of All Individuals
Sec. 631. Improving access to certain programs.
Sec. 632. Supporting at-risk individuals during emergency responses.
Sec. 633. National advisory committees.
Sec. 634. National Academies study on prizes.
Subtitle D—Additional Reauthorizations
Sec. 641. Medical countermeasure priority review voucher.
Sec. 642. Epidemic Intelligence Service.
Sec. 643. Monitoring and distribution of certain medical countermeasures.
Sec. 644. Regional health care emergency preparedness and response systems.
Sec. 645. Emergency system for advance registration of volunteer health professionals.
Sec. 646. Ensuring collaboration and coordination in medical countermeasure
development.
Sec. 647. Military and civilian partnership for trauma readiness.
Sec. 648. National Disaster Medical System.
Sec. 649. Volunteer Medical Reserve Corps.
Sec. 649A. Epidemiology-laboratory capacity
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