S. 1976 · 117th Congress

Nullifying Opportunities for Variants to Infect and Decimate Act

Introduced on Jun 8, 2021 by Jeff Merkley (D-OR). 4 cosponsors, all from the sponsor's party. Latest action (Jun 8, 2021): Read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations.

Stage
Introduced
Introduced
Jun 8, 2021
Cosponsors
4
0 from the other party
Policy area
International Affairs
Open in the Congress explorerCongress.govAlert me

Progress

The furthest stage the measure reached. Simple and concurrent resolutions do not go to the President.

  1. Introduced
  2. 2Reported by committee
  3. 3Passed one chamber
  4. 4Passed both chambers
  5. 5Sent to the President
  6. 6Became law

Official title

A bill to establish a program to oversee the global COVID-19 response and prepare for future pandemics, and for other purposes.

Subjects

  • Cardiovascular and respiratory health
  • Emergency medical services and trauma care
  • Foreign aid and international relief
  • Health care coverage and access
  • Health programs administration and funding
  • Health promotion and preventive care
  • Health technology, devices, supplies
  • Immunology and vaccination
  • Infectious and parasitic diseases
  • Intellectual property
  • International organizations and cooperation
  • Licensing and registrations
  • Manufacturing
  • Military procurement, research, weapons development
  • Multilateral development programs
  • Public contracts and procurement
  • World health

Summary

By the Congressional Research Service (Introduced in Senate, Jun 8, 2021). Public domain.

Nullifying Opportunities for Variants to Infect and Decimate Act or the NOVID Act

This bill establishes the Pandemic Preparedness and Response Program to coordinate and carry out the U.S. government's global health response to COVID-19, its variants, and other pathogens with pandemic potential.

As part of the program, the bill requires, within 30 days, the development of a comprehensive strategy to end the COVID-19 pandemic. The strategy must outline efforts to increase COVID-19 vaccinations worldwide, including through the immediate release of the COVID-19 vaccine doses that the United States committed to sending abroad.

The bill also requires a long-term strategy for the program to prevent future pandemics.

Sponsor and cosponsors

Cosponsors by party as of the day they signed on. Original cosponsors signed on the day of introduction.

Jeff MerkleyD-ORSponsor

Democrats · 3

Independents · 1

Roll calls

Recorded votes on the measure. Most measures move by voice vote or unanimous consent, which record no individual positions.

No recorded roll call on this measure: it moved by voice vote or unanimous consent, or has not reached the floor.

History

Every action as published, oldest first. Roll calls link to how each member voted.

  1. Jun 8, 2021Introduced in Senate
  2. Jun 8, 2021 · SenateRead twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations.

Committees

Committees and subcommittees the measure was referred to.

Agencies in its committees' jurisdiction

Analisa's mapping of committee jurisdiction to federal agencies; the bill may touch others, or none of these.

Who lobbied on it

Organizations whose lobbying reports (LD-2) name this measure. Spending is what they reported for those quarters on all issues, not on this measure alone.

  1. RESCARE, INC. DBA BRIGHTSPRING HEALTH SERVICES LEGACY FUND1 report
    $50K reported (all issues)Federal contractor: RES-CARE, INC$1.6M in contracts, FY2026AI match · 99%

Reports filed in 2023.

Sources and method

Every figure on this page traces to these records.

  • Bill status: bills and resolutions, sponsors, actions, subjects and CRS summaries (U.S. Government Publishing Office (GovInfo), from Congress.gov (Library of Congress))GovInfo Bill Status bulk data (Congress.gov; summaries by the Congressional Research Service) · data current to Oct 9, 2026 · loaded Oct 9, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Members of Congress, their terms, committees and identifiers (The @unitedstates project (from the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, the House and the Senate))unitedstates/congress-legislators: legislators, committees and current committee membership · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication)
  • House roll-call votes (Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives)Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, roll-call vote records · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Senate roll-call votes and DW-NOMINATE scores (Voteview (UCLA Department of Political Science))Lewis, Jeffrey B., Keith Poole, Howard Rosenthal, Adam Boche, Aaron Rudkin, and Luke Sonnet (2026). Voteview: Congressional Roll-Call Votes Database. https://voteview.com/ · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Free to use with the required citation
  • Lobbying disclosures (LD-1 registrations, LD-2 quarterly reports, LD-203 contribution reports) (Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives)Clerk of the House, Lobbying Disclosure Act filings (organizations only; lobbyists' names are not loaded) · data current to Oct 9, 2026 · loaded Oct 9, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Positions are shown only where a roll call recorded them; voice votes and unanimous consent record none.
  • Money and votes are shown side by side; neither explains the other.