Whereas hepatitis B and hepatitis C, and the incidence of liver disease caused by these viruses, have become urgent problems of a global proportion; Whereas an estimated 1,340,000 people worldwide die each year due to hepatitis; Whereas an estimated 257,000,000 people worldwide live with chronic hepatitis B, and an estimated 887,000 people worldwide die each year mostly due to a liver-related illness caused by hepatitis B; Whereas an estimated 71,000,000 people worldwide are chronically infected with hepatitis C, and an estimated 399,000 people worldwide die each year due to a liver-related illness caused by hepatitis C; Whereas up to an estimated 5,700,000 people in the United States are infected with either hepatitis B or hepatitis C, and up to an estimated 2,200,000 who are chronically infected with hepatitis B and up to an estimated 3,500,000 people who are chronically infected with hepatitis C; Whereas the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) estimated that there were 20,900 new acute hepatitis B infections and 41,200 new acute hepatitis C infections, respectively, in the United States in 2016; Whereas the CDC has found significant increases in the transmission of new hepatitis cases in the United States since 2010, including a 3.5-fold increase between 2010 and 2016 in reported cases of acute hepatitis C in the United States; Whereas chronic viral hepatitis claims thousands of lives each year in the United States, with an estimated 18,153 deaths due to hepatitis C in the United States in 2016; Whereas, between 2015 and 2020, United States payers will spend an estimated $136,000,000,000 on hepatitis C drugs and approximately 45 percent of which will come from the Government; Whereas up to an estimated 80 percent of people with acute hepatitis C do not have any symptoms