1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Protecting America from Seasonal and Pandemic Influenza Act of 2023 . 2. Findings The Congress finds the following: (1) Influenza occurs seasonally each year, and throughout history has caused devastating pandemics. The 1918 influenza pandemic killed an estimated 675,000 Americans. (2) In an average season, influenza results in 12,000 to 52,000 deaths in the United States, including over 100 pediatric deaths. Additionally, influenza causes hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and millions of illnesses. (3) The Council of Economic Advisors issued a report in 2019 estimating that seasonal influenza costs the United States approximately $361,000,000,000 per year, and that an influenza pandemic has the potential to cause up to $3,790,000,000,000 in losses. This report was issued prior to the COVID–19 pandemic, which will cost the United States an estimated $16,000,000,000,000. (4) Most funding for pandemic influenza preparedness up until fiscal year 2018 was derived from supplemental appropriations that dated back to the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. (5) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (in this preamble referred to as the CDC ) studies of influenza hospitalization rates by race and ethnicity during 10 influenza seasons from 2009 to 2019 showed that people from racial and ethnic minority groups are at higher risk for being hospitalized with influenza. (6) The COVID–19 pandemic response has been built on the pandemic influenza response ecosystem. (7) Strategies that increase seasonal influenza vaccination rates will also improve pandemic readiness. (8) The National Influenza Vaccine Modernization Strategy of 2020–2030 of the Department of Health and Human Services should be implemented as quickly as possible to ensure the Nation’s vaccine enterprise is highly responsive, flexible, scalable, and effective at reducing the impact of seasonal and pandemic influenza viruses. (9) Influenza surveillance has been improved significantly over the last several years by deploying