PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Jan 24, 2017
Public Health Emergency Response and Accountability Act
This bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services, upon determination of a public health emergency, to provide for the convening of a group of federal officials to prepare monthly reports concerning such matters as funding, collaboration, and best practices.
The bill makes appropriations to the Public Health Emergency Fund upon determination of an emergency. Funding is subject to a calculation that compares amounts available in the fund to average public health emergency relief expenditures over preceding fiscal years.
Showing the opening paragraphs of the official summary.
The bill amends the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 to exempt the fund from sequestration, a process of automatic, usually across-the-board spending reductions under which budgetary resources are permanently cancelled to enforce specific budget policy goals.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) must report on:
the capacity of the public health system to respond effectively to infectious disease outbreaks,
the coordination between federal, state, and local government entities when responding to infectious disease outbreaks,
the most effective ways to provide or allocate resources for public health emergency response, and
an audit of how funds for public health emergencies have been expended within the last two years.
GAO must also issue a post-emergency report on response efforts by government entities.
People & committees
Sen. Cassidy, Bill [R-LA] · R–LA
Legislative record
A procedural vote is different from passage. Passage in one chamber does not establish enactment. Explore the glossary.
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Introduced in Senate
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We currently store references to these documents.
Source last updated: Aug 11, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
AI Conversation Starters
Choose a perspective, copy a prompt, and paste it into your preferred AI. Each prompt includes the bill version and available official source links, and asks for counterarguments as well as supporting evidence.
Analyze S.196 as objectively as possible. Explain its main provisions, who would be affected, possible benefits and harms, implementation, exceptions, and uncertainties. Present the strongest arguments for and against it, and identify evidence needed to assess its public impact.
Examine S.196 through a progressive lens, focusing on fairness, access, economic inequality, and effects on vulnerable communities. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and distinguish stated goals from demonstrated outcomes.
Examine S.196 through a conservative lens, focusing on fiscal responsibility, institutional stability, federalism, and the scope of government. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and any provisions that challenge this perspective.
Examine S.196 through a civil-liberties and limited-government lens. Consider individual rights, privacy, voluntary choice, accountability, and government power. Explain tradeoffs, possible safeguards, and the strongest counterarguments without assuming the proposal is beneficial or harmful.