Premier Submits Recommendations to Congress on PAHPA Reauthorization

Premier submitted recommendations to Members of Congress on reauthorization of the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA), most of which expired on September 30, 2023. In its comments, Premier urged Congress to act in a bipartisan manner to reauthorize PAHPA, emphasizing that the statute has played a critical role in supporting the nation's response to COVID-19 and that the US remains less prepared for future public health emergencies while PAHPA remains unauthorized.

Drawing on lessons learned from the pandemic and other public health emergencies, Premier called for:

• Clarifying federal leadership and coordination: Recommend clearer delineation of federal roles and responsibilities during public health emergencies to improve response coordination.
• Improving supply chain visibility and resiliency: Support development of a real-time, automated inventory data system to track critical medical supplies and drugs across the supply chain.
• Modernizing the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS): Advocate for a next-generation SNS built through public-private partnerships, with transparent sourcing, geographically diverse suppliers, coordinated regional stockpiles, routine testing, and regular reporting.
• Incentivizing domestic manufacturing while maintaining global diversity: Recommend tax incentives, purchasing commitments, and payment adjustments to support U.S. manufacturing without creating overreliance on a single region.
• Mitigating drug and device shortages: Urge expanded FDA authority to improve manufacturing transparency, inspection parity, shortage reporting and risk management requirements.
• Protecting supply chain integrity: Recommend additional measures to combat gray-market activity and counterfeit products through stronger oversight, reporting, and enforcement.
• Updating preparedness programs for current threats: Suggest targeted updates across PAHPA programs to address cybersecurity risks, laboratory capacity, biosurveillance, workforce support and the needs of vulnerable populations.