Sponsors (68)
Official title: To authorize appropriations for data collection, surveillance, and research on maternal health outcomes during public health emergencies, and for other purposes.
Introduced May 14, 2026 by Lauren Underwood · Last progress May 14, 2026
The bill strengthens emergency surveillance, equity-focused data and guidance, and community-based maternity supports for pregnant and postpartum people, but it does so at the cost of new federal/state spending, added administrative and privacy risks, and reliance on nonbinding recommendations that may limit uniform impact.
Pregnant and postpartum people nationwide gain substantially better emergency surveillance and publicly accessible, disaggregated data on diagnoses, hospitalizations, deaths, and maternal/infant outcomes, enabling faster, more targeted responses and research.
Pregnant and postpartum individuals receive clearer, timely, multilingual, evidence-based guidance and prioritized outreach during public-health emergencies (including telehealth, doulas/midwives inclusion, and mental-health/substance-use screening), improving access to respectful, culturally and linguistically appropriate maternity care for underserved groups.
States, tribes, territories, and local health departments receive funding, technical assistance, and faster guidance to modernize data collection (including PRAMS), demographic disaggregation, and targeted outreach, which supports better-tailored interventions and research.
Taxpayers and state budgets face new and potentially recurring costs (including a $100M CDC program, $45M PRAMS modernization, CDC staffing/resource needs, and possible expanded program eligibility), which could increase federal/state spending or require offsets.
States, laboratories, and health systems may face substantial administrative burdens and capacity strains to collect, disaggregate, transmit, and publish pregnancy and demographic data quickly, risking delays, inconsistent compliance, and uneven benefits across jurisdictions.
Publishing detailed, regularly updated surveillance data raises re-identification and privacy risks for small, remote, or Indigenous populations despite deidentification rules, potentially harming communities and deterring participation.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Authorizes federal funding and requires HHS/CDC to collect, publish disaggregated maternal and infant data during public-health emergencies, run education campaigns, and issue respectful-care guidance.
Provides federal funding and new HHS requirements to track, study, and respond to how infectious disease outbreaks and other public health emergencies affect pregnant and postpartum people and their infants. It directs CDC and NIH grants for surveillance, research, and capacity building; requires timely, disaggregated public reporting of pregnancy-related outcomes during emergencies; mandates public education campaigns; and creates a multisector Task Force to issue guidance on respectful, equity-focused maternity care during emergencies. The law defines key terms (including maternal mortality, respectful maternity care, and postpartum period), requires consultation with tribes and urban Indian organizations, and emphasizes data disaggregation by race, ethnicity, language, geography and socioeconomic status to identify and address disparities.