Lawmakers Seek to Codify Interagency Cooperation on the Coronavirus
Lawmakers are seeking to codify into law cooperation between federal agencies to support the scientific community’s efforts to track, research, and prevent the spread of diseases like coronavirus. The Computing Opportunities to Vanquish Infectious Diseases Research Act of 2020 (COVID Research Act) authorizes a White House interagency working group and directs the group to develop a national strategy to address the disease outbreak, among other priorities.
In a release last week, House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Ranking Member Frank Lucas (R-OK) introduced the legislation as authorizing “critical work being done by the federal research enterprise to successfully combat infectious diseases like COVID-19.”
“Our National Labs have already shown the value of using high-performance supercomputing and advanced research facilities to model the novel coronavirus, understand its effects on human cells, and predict its spread. The federal research community is doing great work and using their considerable talents to fight this pandemic and address the many challenges it has caused. The COVID Research Act authorizes a strategic and coordinated approach so our scientists and researchers have the resources they need to succeed,” Rep. Lucas explained in the release.
The legislation would authorize the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) interagency working group on Emerging Infectious Disease Prediction and Forecasting and directs this group to develop a national strategy to address infectious diseases. It also authorizes the National Academies of Science Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Disease and 21st Century Health Threats as a standing advisory committee of experts to provide scientific advice to the interagency working group.
The legislation also provides resources to support research being done at the Department of Energy. The bill authorizes $50 million for DOE’s Infectious Disease Research Program over the next two years. It also gives this research program, in coordination with the National Science Foundation (NSF) and NASA, power to utilize the federal government’s computing resources to respond to infectious diseases, including COVID-19. Finally, it supports a public-private high-performance computing consortium to address infectious diseases.
Original cosponsors of the legislation include Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX), Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX), Rep. Roger Marshall (R-KS), Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL), Rep. Pete Olson (R-TX), Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH), Rep. Francis Rooney (R-FL), and Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC).
