Strategy for Public Health Preparedness and Response to Artificial Intelligence Threats

This proposal would require the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to create a national plan to prepare for and respond to public health risks from the misuse of artificial intelligence. HHS must work with outside experts and companies, and deliver the plan to Congress within 180 days of the law taking effect. The plan must spell out roles and goals, show how progress will be measured, find gaps in our current systems, and lay out steps to close those gaps. It must focus on dangers like AI being used to help make biological weapons or to design viruses and bacteria that resist treatment, and include other AI-related health threats HHS identifies. The plan should be shared with key committees in a way that protects national security. The bill also updates federal emergency response coordination so these AI-related threats are included in all-hazards public health planning.

Key points:

• Who is affected: HHS, public health agencies, medical countermeasure developers, and communities relying on health security.
• What changes: A new national strategy with clear roles, goals, metrics, gap analysis, and actions to strengthen preparedness against AI misuse (including bioweapons and drug-resistant pathogens).
• When: HHS must deliver the strategy within 180 days after enactment; emergency coordination guidance is updated to include AI-related threats .