H.R. 766 — Introduced in House

I 119th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 766 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES January 28, 2025Mr. Garcia of California (for himself and Mr. Bacon) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce A BILL To amend the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary to award grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements to eligible entities to establish, maintain, or improve activities related to the detection and monitoring of infectious diseases through wastewater for public health emergency preparedness and response purposes, and for other purposes. 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Surveilling Effluent Water for Epidemic Response Act or the SEWER Act. 2. National Wastewater Surveillance System (a) In general Subtitle C of title XXVIII of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300hh–31 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following: 2827. National Wastewater Surveillance System (a) National wastewater surveillance system The Secretary, acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and in coordination with Federal departments and agencies and relevant State and local departments and agencies, shall expand, intensify, and coordinate the activities of the National Wastewater Surveillance System to detect and monitor pathogens in wastewater, such as SARS–CoV–2, influenza, mpox, dengue, West Nile virus, and respiratory syncytial virus. (b) Authorization of appropriations To carry out this section, there is authorized to be appropriated $150,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2026 through 2030, to remain available until expended. . (b) Rule of construction Nothing in the amendment made by subsection (a) shall be construed as requiring a wastewater utility or service provider to comply with a request for wastewater surveillance.