President Trump signed into law the Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness and Advancing Innovation Act (PAHPA), authored by Reps. Susan W. Brooks (R-IN05) and Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA18), to strengthen the country’s existing preparedness and response programs.
PAHPA aims to ensure that the nation is better prepared to respond to a wide range of public health emergencies, whether man-made or occurring through a natural disaster or infectious disease.
“People across the country expect the federal government to be prepared to keep them safe during times of natural disasters or biological, chemical, radiological or nuclear threats to our public health and national security,” Brooks said. “The reality is, these kinds of threats are not just hypothetical. Threats such as Ebola, smallpox or the pandemic influenza can devastate communities, whether occurring naturally or manufactured into weapons of mass destruction by nation states or terrorist organizations.”
