COVID–19 Health Care Worker Protection Act of 2020

II 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 3475 To direct the Secretary of Labor to issue an emergency temporary standard that requires certain employers to develop and implement a comprehen- sive infectious disease exposure control plan to protect employees in the health care sectors and other employees at elevated risk from expo- sure to SARS–CoV–2, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MARCH 12, 2020 Ms. DUCKWORTH (for herself, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Mr. BROWN, Mr. SANDERS, Mr. DURBIN, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mr. BOOKER, Mr. REED, Mr. MENEN- DEZ, and Ms. WARREN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions A BILL To direct the Secretary of Labor to issue an emergency temporary standard that requires certain employers to develop and implement a comprehensive infectious dis- ease exposure control plan to protect employees in the health care sectors and other employees at elevated risk from exposure to SARS–CoV–2, 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 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:13 Mar 21, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3475.IS S3475 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 3475 IS SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘COVID–19 Health 2 Care Worker Protection Act of 2020’’. 3 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 4 Congress finds the following: 5 (1) The infectious disease COVID–19 presents 6 a grave danger to health care workers who are on 7 the first line of defense of the United States against 8 this epidemic. 9 (2) Hundreds of health care workers in the 10 United States have been infected or quarantined due 11 to exposure to patients with COVID–19. Surveys 12 conducted by health care worker unions and others 13 have found that many healthcare facilities are inad- 14 equately prepared to safely protect health care work- 15 ers who are exposed to the virus. 16 (3) Inadequate infection control precautions 17 have a detrimental impact on health care workers, 18 patients, and the public, and if there is breakdown 19 in health care worker protections, the Nation’s pub- 20 lic health system is placed at risk. 21 (4) The severe acute respiratory syndrome (re- 22 ferred to in this section as ‘‘SARS’’) epidemic of 23 2003 and 2004 in Canada, which involved a 24 coronavirus, resulted in a disproportionately large 25 number of infections of both health care workers and 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:13 Mar 21, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3475.IS S3475 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 3475 IS patients in Ontario, Canada hospitals due to insuffi- 1 cient infection control procedures involving SARS. 2 (5) The Occupational Safety and Health Ad- 3 ministration began rulemaking on a standard to pro- 4 tect health care workers from airborne and other in- 5 fectious diseases in 2009. In 2017, the Trump Ad- 6 ministration suspended work on this rulemaking, re- 7 moving it from the active Regulatory Agenda. 8 (6) The Centers for Disease Control and Pre- 9 vention issued a document entitled ‘‘2007 Guideline 10 for Isolation Precautions: Preventing Transmission 11 of Infectious Agents in Healthcare Settings’’ in July, 12 2007. However, the guideline in such document is 13 not binding. 14 (7) Absent an enforceable standard, employers 15 lack mandatory requirements to implement an effec- 16 tive and ongoing infection and exposure control pro- 17 gram that provides protection to health care workers 18 from COVID–19. 19 (8) Section 6(c)(1) of the Occupational Safety 20 and Health Act of 1970 (29 U.S.C. 655(c)(1)) au- 21 thorizes the Occupational Safety and Health Admin- 22 istration to issue an emergency temporary standard 23 if employees are exposed to grave danger from 24 harmful agents or new hazards and if an emergency 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:13 Mar 21, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3475.IS S3475 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 3475 IS standard is necessary to protect employees from 1 such danger. The widespread outbreak of COVID– 2 19 clearly satisfies these two conditions. 3 (9) The Occupational Safety and Health Ad- 4 ministration has received 2 petitions in March 2020 5 calling on the Occupational Safety and Health Ad- 6 ministration to issue an emergency temporary stand- 7 ard to protect workers from COVID–19. 8 (10) An emergency temporary standard is nec- 9 essary to ensure the immediate protection of workers 10 in health care workplaces and other high-risk work- 11 places identified by the Centers for Disease Control 12 and Prevention and the Occupational Safety and 13 Health Administration from infection related to 14 COVID–19. 15 TITLE I—COVID–19 EMERGENCY 16 TEMPORARY STANDARD 17 SEC. 101. COVID–19 EMERGENCY TEMPORARY STANDARD. 18 (a) EMERGENCY TEMPORARY STANDARD.—Pursuant 19 to section 6(c)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health 20 Act of 1970 (29 U.S.C. 655(c)(1)), not later than 1 month 21 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of 22 Labor shall promulgate an emergency temporary standard 23 to protect from occupational exposure to SARS–CoV–2— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:13 Mar 21, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3475.IS S3475 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 3475 IS (1) employees of health care sector employers; 1 and 2 (2) employees in other sectors whom the Cen- 3 ters for Disease Control and Prevention or the Occu- 4 pational Safety and Health Administration identifies 5 as having elevated risk. 6 (b) PERMANENT STANDARD.—Upon publication of 7 the emergency standard under subsection (a), the Sec- 8 retary of Labor shall commence a proceeding to promul- 9 gate a standard under section 6(c)(3) of the Occupational 10 Safety and Health Act of 1970 (29 U.S.C. 655(c)(3)) with 11 respect to such emergency temporary standard. 12 (c) REQUIREMENTS.—Each standard promulgated 13 under this section shall— 14 (1) require the employers of the employees de- 15 scribed in subsection (a) to develop and implement 16 a comprehensive infectious disease exposure control 17 plan; and 18 (2) at a minimum, be based on the precautions 19 for severe acute respiratory syndrome in the ‘‘2007 20 Guideline for Isolation Precautions: Preventing 21 Transmission of Infectious Agents in Healthcare 22 Settings’’ of the Centers for Disease Control and 23 Prevention and any subsequent updates; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:13 Mar 21, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3475.IS S3475 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •S 3475 IS (3) provide no less protection for novel patho- 1 gens than precautions mandated by standards 2 adopted by a State plan that has been approved by 3 the Secretary of Labor under section 18 of the Oc- 4 cupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (29 5 U.S.C. 667). 6 (d) APPLICABILITY TO STATES AND POLITICAL SUB- 7 DIVISIONS.—For the purposes of this title, a State or po- 8 litical subdivision of a State shall be considered an em- 9 ployer under section 3(5) of the Occupational Safety and 10 Health Act of 1970 (29 U.S.C. 652(5)), and the emer- 11 gency temporary standard and permanent standard re- 12 quired under this section shall be applicable to such em- 13 ployers and enforceable under the Occupational Safety 14 and Health Act of 1970 (29 U.S.C. 651 et seq.). 15 TITLE II—AMENDMENTS TO THE 16 SOCIAL SECURITY ACT 17 SEC. 201. APPLICATION OF COVID–19 EMERGENCY TEM- 18 PORARY STANDARD TO CERTAIN FACILITIES 19 RECEIVING MEDICARE FUNDS. 20 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 1866 of the Social Secu- 21 rity Act (42 U.S.C. 1395cc) is amended— 22 (1) in subsection (a)(1)— 23 (A) in subparagraph (X), by striking 24 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:13 Mar 21, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3475.IS S3475 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •S 3475 IS (B) in subparagraph (Y), by striking the 1 period at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 2 (C) by inserting after subparagraph (Y) 3 the following new subparagraph: 4 ‘‘(Z) in the case of hospitals that are not other- 5 wise subject to the Occupational Safety and Health 6 Act of 1970 (or a State occupational safety and 7 health plan that is approved under 18(b) of such 8 Act) and skilled nursing facilities that are not other- 9 wise subject to such Act (or such a State occupa- 10 tional safety and health plan), to comply with the 11 standards promulgated under section 101 of the 12 COVID–19 Health Care Worker Protection Act of 13 2020.’’; and 14 (2) in subsection (b)(4)— 15 (A) in subparagraph (A), by inserting 16 ‘‘and a hospital or skilled nursing facility that 17 fails to comply with the requirement of sub- 18 section (a)(1)(Z) (relating to the standards pro- 19 mulgated under section 101 of the COVID–19 20 Health Care Worker Protection Act of 2020)’’ 21 after ‘‘Bloodborne Pathogens Standard)’’; and 22 (B) in subparagraph (B)— 23 (i) by striking ‘‘(a)(1)(U)’’ and insert- 24 ing ‘‘(a)(1)(V)’’; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:13 Mar 21, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3475.IS S3475 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 •S 3475 IS (ii) by inserting ‘‘(or, in the case of a 1 failure to comply with the requirement of 2 subsection (a)(1)(Z), for a violation of the 3 standards referred to in such subsection by 4 a hospital or skilled nursing facility, as ap- 5 plicable, that is subject to the provisions of 6 such Act)’’ before the period at the end. 7 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 8 subsection (a) shall apply beginning on the date that is 9 1 month after the date of promulgation of the emergency 10 temporary standard under section 101 of the COVID–19 11 Health Care Worker Protection Act of 2020. 12 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:13 Mar 21, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S3475.IS S3475 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS