S.Amdt. 577

SA 577. Mr. MENENDEZ submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1790, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year
2020 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy,
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the end of subtitle C of title VII, add the following:

SEC. 729. COMPTROLLER GENERAL REPORT ON USE OF PLANT-BASED
VACCINES.

(a) In General.--Not later than 180 days after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the
United States shall submit to Congress a report examining the
use of plant-based vaccines by the Department of Defense in
order to respond quickly to epidemics and pandemics.
(b) Elements.--The report required by subsection (a) shall
include an assessment of the following:
(1) Whether the use of plant-based vaccines can supplement
current requirements for force protection, include vaccines
against endemic disease threats as well as biological warfare
or bioterrorism agents.
(2) Whether the development of plant-based vaccines can
help the Secretary of Defense coordinate pandemic response
plans with the Secretary of Homeland Security and the
Secretary of Health and Human Services.
(3) Whether plant-based vaccines, in addition to mammalian-
based vaccines, can allow the Secretary of Defense to best
respond to pandemic outbreaks.
(c) Follow-up on Previous Report.--The report required by
subsection (a) shall include a follow-up on the February 2017
report by the Comptroller General entitled ``DOD, HHS, and
DHS Should Use Existing Coordination Mechanisms to Improve
Their Pandemic Preparedness''.
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