Global Health Security Act of 2021

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CHABOT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 391, the Global Health Security Act, bipartisan legislation which Congressman Gerry Connolly and I introduced to strengthen U.S. and global preparedness for, and capacity to respond to pandemics, like COVID-19. And I want to thank Chairman Meeks and Ranking Member McCaul for working with us to improve this Congress's version of the legislation in committee as the bill heads toward enactment.

After a year of lockdowns, masks, social distancing, working from home, school closures and worst of all, a horrific death here at home and across the globe, COVID-19 has taught us, like nothing else has, the full costs of a pandemic. It has also shown us just how vulnerable the United States is to disease outbreaks on the other side of the world. A corrupt and opaque health system in China can cause millions of deaths here in America. China's politically-motivated censorship of coronavirus information early on caused the world untold suffering. But a disease like COVID-19 could start anywhere, and if it gets out, it can become a pandemic.

That is why, we must help less prepared countries identify and contain future emerging deadly diseases when they originate, and mitigate their impact before they have a chance to grow to pandemic scale.

When Mr. Connolly and I first introduced this legislation in 2018, COVID-19 didn't exist. However, we realized that Congress needed to support, direct, and provide oversight for ongoing global health security work and that the proper personnel needed to be in place to coordinate our response to an emerging disease threat.

The Global Health Security Act supports each of these goals. First, it gets personnel right. Second, it strengthens Congressional oversight over global health security work. Third, it provides a Congressional endorsement, and detailed guidance for, U.S. efforts to strengthen health systems and pandemic preparedness across the globe.

Witnessing the death toll and the economic devastation that COVID-19 brought, I think all Americans will agree with me that protecting our nation's health from future pandemics must be seen as a national security priority. As the United States comes out of the pandemic, and America returns to normal, we must recommit to leadership on global health security and prepare the world to face the next deadly disease before it becomes a pandemic.

So I would urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

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