Voluntary registry for firefighter cancer incidence

The Secretary of Health and Human Services (referred to in this section as the Secretary), acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and in coordination with other agencies as the Secretary determines appropriate, shall develop and maintain, directly or through a grant or cooperative agreement, a voluntary registry of firefighters (referred to in this section as the Firefighter Registry) to collect relevant health and occupational information of such firefighters for purposes of determining cancer incidence. The Firefighter Registry may be used for the following purposes: In carrying out the voluntary data collection for purposes of inclusion under the Firefighter Registry, the Secretary may collect the following: Information, if available, related to— basic demographic information, including— In carrying out paragraph (1), with respect to diagnoses and treatment of firefighters with cancer, the Secretary shall, as appropriate, enable the Firefighter Registry to electronically connect to State-based cancer registries, for a purpose described by clause (vi) or (vii) of section 280e(c)(2)(D) of this title, to obtain— The Secretary shall, in consultation with the relevant stakeholders identified in subsection (e), including epidemiologists and pathologists, develop a strategy to coordinate data collection activities, including within existing State registries, for inclusion in the Firefighter Registry established under this Act. The strategy may include the following: The Secretary shall submit the strategy described in paragraph (1) to the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate not later than 30 days after the date of the completion of the strategy. The Secretary shall develop, in consultation with the stakeholders identified in subsection (e), State health agencies, State departments of homeland security, and volunteer, paid-on-call, combination, and career firefighting agencies, a strategy for inclusion of firefighters in the registry that are representative of the general population of firefighters, that outlines the following: The Secretary shall consult with non-Federal experts on the Firefighter Registry established under this section, and shall submit to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate and the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives a report that includes, as appropriate, information on goals achieved and improvements needed to strengthen the Firefighter Registry. Such non-Federal experts shall include the following: Subject to subsection (g), the Secretary shall ensure that information and analysis in the Firefighter Registry are available, as appropriate, to the public, including researchers, firefighters, and national fire service organizations. In carrying out this Act, the Secretary shall ensure that information in and analysis of the Firefighter Registry are made available in a manner that, at a minimum, protects personal privacy to the extent required by applicable Federal and State privacy law. To carry out this section, there are authorized to be appropriated $5,500,000 for each of fiscal years 2024 through 2028.