Washington, D.C. — Representatives Lucy McBath (D-GA-06) and Buddy Carter (R-GA-01) have introduced federal legislation in the House of Representatives to improve public health systems and infrastructure. H.R. 5321, the Public Health Infrastructure Modernization Act of 2019 amends the Public Health Service Act to expand, enhance, and improve public health data systems.

“We must use our technology to help keep families healthy and whole. Modernizing data systems in our public health centers will give our health care professionals faster access to more data, and it is an important step toward protecting the public health of our communities.” said McBath. “It is so important that we give every tool available to organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, located right here in Georgia, so that they can continue their critical work. I want to thank my Republican colleague Buddy Carter for joining me in introducing this measure as we work to improve our public health system.”

H.R. 5321 improves community preparedness and:

• Requires HHS to award grants to state and local public health departments for the expansion and modernization of public health data systems to improve data collection, simplify reporting by health care providers, enhance interoperability of current public health data systems with health information technology, support earlier disease detection, and support electronic case reporting.
• Authorizes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to update and improve public health data systems used by the agency.
• Gives $500 million over 5 years for public health data improvement.

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