Medical countermeasures

Subject to the availability of appropriations, the Secretary shall, as appropriate, establish a medical countermeasures program within the components of the Department to— The Secretary, acting through the Chief Medical Officer of the Department, shall— develop standards for— The Secretary, acting through the Chief Medical Officer of the Department, shall establish a medical countermeasures working group comprised of representatives from appropriate components and offices of the Department to ensure that medical countermeasures standards are maintained and guidance is consistent. Not later than 120 days after the date on which appropriations are made available to carry out subsection (a), the Chief Medical Officer shall develop and submit to the Secretary an integrated logistics support plan for medical countermeasures, including— Not later than 120 days after December 27, 2021, the Secretary shall transfer all medical countermeasures-related programmatic and personnel resources from the Under Secretary for Management to the Chief Medical Officer. In determining the types and quantities of medical countermeasures to stockpile under subsection (d), the Secretary, acting through the Chief Medical Officer of the Department— may use, if available— Not later than 180 days after December 27, 2021, the Secretary shall provide a briefing to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives regarding— In this section, the term “medical countermeasures” means antibiotics, antivirals, antidotes, therapeutics, radiological countermeasures, and other countermeasures that may be deployed to protect the employees and working animals of the Department in the event of a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or explosives attack, naturally occurring disease outbreak, other event impacting health, or pandemic.