HB 24-03: Further Efforts in Pandemic Fighting Act (Passed)

[thumb21]

SENATE BILL

To put more effort into fighting the COVID-19 pandemic

Be it enacted in both Houses of Congress Assembled,

Section 1: Name
1. This bill may be referred to as the "Further efforts in pandemic fighting Act"

Section 2: Findings
Congress finds the following:
1. That hospitals in states like Washington, New York and New Jersey have reached or are close to reaching their maximum capacity
2. That the curve of contagions is gradually flattening
3. That testing must be increased and become more widespread before the economy can reopen

Section 3: Actions to take

1. Congress hereby authorizes and encourages the opening of temporary field hospitals in non-healthcare related venues in order to treat the excess amount of cases. States begin building open these when hospitals in a certain county are at 80% of their capacity and open them when hospitals are at 90% of their capacity.
2. Nothing in this bill shall be construed as to reduce or ignore safety or hygenic standards as they may be prescribed by law
3. The government of Atlasia hereby encourages and promotes states and regions to ramp up testing in order to better trace contagions.
4. 300$ million shall be appropiated as grants to the states and regions for the regional and state governments to pursue the objectives established in this bill

Section 4: Enactment
1. This bill shall become enacted immediately after passage

Sponsor: Thumb21
House Designation: HB 24-03

72 hours to debate.

[thumb21]

This is a senate bill I took from Tack, the senate thread is also open so I encourage people to read there too. Having the bill debated in both the House and Senate means we can pass it easier.

[Former President tack50]

Crossposting from the Senate:

For some reason I think that would be too high, but I suppose we don't need to spend all the money if we don't actually need to (plus they are grants anyways). Presenting the following amendment:

SENATE BILL

To put more effort into fighting the COVID-19 pandemic

Be it enacted in both Houses of Congress Assembled,

Section 1: Name
1. This bill may be referred to as the "Further efforts in pandemic fighting Act"

Section 2: Findings
Congress finds the following:
1. That hospitals in states like Washington, New York and New Jersey have reached or are close to reaching their maximum capacity
2. That the curve of contagions is gradually flattening
3. That testing must be increased and become more widespread before the economy can reopen

Section 3: Actions to take

1. Congress hereby authorizes and encourages the opening of temporary field hospitals in non-healthcare related venues in order to treat the excess amount of cases. States begin building open these when hospitals in a certain county are at 80% of their capacity and open them when hospitals are at 90% of their capacity.
2. Nothing in this bill shall be construed as to reduce or ignore safety or hygenic standards as they may be prescribed by law
3. The government of Atlasia hereby encourages and promotes states and regions to ramp up testing in order to better trace contagions.
4. 300$ million $2 billion shall be appropiated as grants to the states and regions for the regional and state governments to pursue the objectives established in this bill

Section 4: Enactment
1. This bill shall become enacted immediately after passage

[thumb21]

Sponsoring Tack's amendment.

[thumb21]

Does anyone have any thoughts or comments?

[Elcaspar]

I support this bill, as well as the amendment that Senator Tack offered. It is critical that we help those states that are close to reaching capacity in their health facilities.

[thumb21]

Amendment adopted

[Fmr. Representative Encke]

Question: what are the '80%' and '90%' figures derived from? What is this percentage normally, and how has it changed with Covid?

[thumb21]

Question: what are the '80%' and '90%' figures derived from? What is this percentage normally, and how has it changed with Covid?

My understanding is that the point is that once capacity utilization raises above 80%, it will trigger plans for building temporary hospitals because it gives enough time to build them before utilization reaches 100%.

It would vary by state, but the national percentage use of hospital beds was 64% in 2018 - here are some statistics by state and hospital characteristics: https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/101864/hospital-readiness-for-covid-19_2.pdf

There is also data here (particularly figure 7 and table 1) which shows us where coronavirus is likely to/has caused a big enough surge to overwhelm capacity and where that section would have the most impact.
http://www.healthdata.org/sites/default/files/files/research_articles/2020/covid_paper_MEDRXIV-2020-043752v1-Murray.pdf

[Fmr. Representative Encke]

Question: what are the '80%' and '90%' figures derived from? What is this percentage normally, and how has it changed with Covid?

My understanding is that the point is that once capacity utilization raises above 80%, it will trigger plans for building temporary hospitals because it gives enough time to build them before utilization reaches 100%.

It would vary by state, but the national percentage use of hospital beds was 64% in 2018 - here are some statistics by state and hospital characteristics: https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/101864/hospital-readiness-for-covid-19_2.pdf

There is also data here (particularly figure 7 and table 1) which shows us where coronavirus is likely to/has caused a big enough surge to overwhelm capacity and where that section would have the most impact.
http://www.healthdata.org/sites/default/files/files/research_articles/2020/covid_paper_MEDRXIV-2020-043752v1-Murray.pdf

Basically my concern is that the '80% occupancy to start building' requirement is too low and that there are hospitals in certain areas where >80% occupancy is the norm (for instance, looking at this data from 2016, there are a few states where average occupancy nears 80% in urban areas).

Also note that there is an error in Section 3.1, where it says 'states begin building open these.' Also, is the intention of this section to require construction of the field hospitals only when all hospitals in a certain county are at 80% capacity individually, or when 80% of beds across all hospitals in a county are occupied?

I'd prefer removing the percentage requirements entirely and letting the regions distribute funds as they feel necessary, as in the following amendment.

SENATE BILL

To put more effort into fighting the COVID-19 pandemic

Be it enacted in both Houses of Congress Assembled,

Section 1: Name
1. This bill may be referred to as the "Further efforts in pandemic fighting Act"

Section 2: Findings
Congress finds the following:
1. That hospitals in states like Washington, New York and New Jersey have reached or are close to reaching their maximum capacity
2. That the curve of contagions is gradually flattening
3. That testing must be increased and become more widespread before the economy can reopen

Section 3: Actions to take

1. Congress hereby authorizes and encourages the opening of temporary field hospitals in non-healthcare related venues in order to treat the excess amount of cases. States begin building open these when hospitals in a certain county are at 80% of their capacity and open them when hospitals are at 90% of their capacity.
2. Nothing in this bill shall be construed as to reduce or ignore safety or hygenic standards as they may be prescribed by law
3. The government of Atlasia hereby encourages and promotes states and regions to ramp up testing in order to better trace contagions.
4. $2 billion shall be appropiated as grants to the states and regions for the regional and state governments to pursue the objectives established in this bill

Section 4: Enactment
1. This bill shall become enacted immediately after passage

Of course, if the other representatives feel this bill must be passed immediately and that we don't have time to introduce a corresponding amendment in the Senate version, then I can withdraw the amendment.

[Former President tack50]

For the record, I have introduced an identical amendment in the Senate

Introducing the following amendment to apply Encke's suggestion. Honestly Encke's idea makes more sense, let's just let states and counties do whatever they feel is appropiate:

SENATE BILL

To put more effort into fighting the COVID-19 pandemic

Be it enacted in both Houses of Congress Assembled,

Section 1: Name
1. This bill may be referred to as the "Further efforts in pandemic fighting Act"

Section 2: Findings
Congress finds the following:
1. That hospitals in states like Washington, New York and New Jersey have reached or are close to reaching their maximum capacity
2. That the curve of contagions is gradually flattening
3. That testing must be increased and become more widespread before the economy can reopen

Section 3: Actions to take

1. Congress hereby authorizes and encourages the opening of temporary field hospitals in non-healthcare related venues in order to treat the excess amount of cases. States begin building open these when hospitals in a certain county are at 80% of their capacity and open them when hospitals are at 90% of their capacity.
2. Nothing in this bill shall be construed as to reduce or ignore safety or hygenic standards as they may be prescribed by law
3. The government of Atlasia hereby encourages and promotes states and regions to ramp up testing in order to better trace contagions.
4. $2 billion shall be appropiated as grants to the states and regions for the regional and state governments to pursue the objectives established in this bill

Section 4: Enactment
1. This bill shall become enacted immediately after passage

[thumb21]

Encke's amendment is adopted.

Motion for a final vote.

[Fmr. Representative Encke]

Seconding.

[Sestak]

so uh this is a sort of example where JOINT SESSION on a bill is probably a good idea - amendments are voted on as a group, and then final votes are held needing 5/9 reps and 3.5/6 Senators simultaneously.

[thumb21]

so uh this is a sort of example where JOINT SESSION on a bill is probably a good idea - amendments are voted on as a group, and then final votes are held needing 5/9 reps and 3.5/6 Senators simultaneously.

I did propose this idea when the crisis first started but it never really ended up happening. For the time being though, there has been good enough communication between the house and senate to allow both to pass and amend several coronavirus bills simultaneously.

[Fmr. Representative Encke]

Is the final vote gonna start?

[thumb21]

Is the final vote gonna start?

Sorry, I didn't have an internet connection for most of the day.

Final vote

48 hours

[thumb21]

Aye

[Fmr. Representative Encke]

Aye

[PPT Spiral]

Aye

[cinyc]

Aye

[OSR stands with Israel]

Aye

[Elcaspar]

Aye

[Leinad]

Aye

[RC (a la Frémont)]

Aye