CQ News: Debate Over Medical Stockpile Emerges in Pandemic Bill Talks
“Lawmakers working on a bipartisan pandemic preparedness bill are sparring over the future of the nation’s emergency medical supply stockpile. Congress needs to renew the authority by Sept. 30 for programs that fund the development of drugs and other products for infectious disease outbreaks or other emergencies. … [S]ome House and Senate Democrats worry that a proposal to transfer authority over the emergency stockpile from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to another office within the Department of Health and Human Services risks politicizing its governance and could give industry outsized influence over what is purchased…” (Siddons, 3/5).