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 296,000,000 people worldwide live with chronic hepatitis B, and an estimated 884,000 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 5,900,000 people in the United States are infected with either hepatitis B or hepatitis C, and up to an estimated 2,400,000 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 20,700 new acute hepatitis B infections and 57,500 new acute hepatitis C infections, respectively, in the United States in 2019; Whereas the CDC has found significant increases in the transmission of new hepatitis cases in the United States since 2010, including a 63-percent increase between 2015 and 2019 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 14,242 deaths due to hepatitis C in the United States in 2016; Whereas up to an estimated 80 percent of people with acute hepatitis C do not have any symptoms; Whereas available data suggests that more than 70 percent of new hepatitis C infections and 36 percent of new hepatitis B infections are among people who inject drugs