This Act may be cited as the “United States Public Health Service Modernization Act of 2019”.

(a) Commissioned corps and ready reserve corps.—Section 203 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 204) is amended—

(1) in subsection (a)(1), by striking “a Ready Reserve Corps for service in time of national emergency” and inserting “, for service in time of a public health or national emergency, a Ready Reserve Corps”; and

(2) in subsection (c)—

(A) in the heading, by striking “research” and inserting “Reserve Corps”;

(B) in paragraph (1), by inserting “during public health or national emergencies” before the period;

(C) in paragraph (2)—

(i) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by inserting “, consistent with paragraph (1)” after “shall”;

(ii) in subparagraph (C), by inserting “during such emergencies” after “members”; and

(iii) in subparagraph (D), by inserting “, consistent with subparagraph (C)” before the period; and

(D) by adding at the end the following:

“(3) STATUTORY REFERENCES TO RESERVE.—A reference in any Federal statute, except in the case of subsection (b), to the ‘Reserve Corps’ of the Public Health Service or to the ‘reserve’ of the Public Health Service shall be deemed to be a reference to the Ready Reserve Corps.”.

(b) Deployment readiness.—Section 203A(a)(1)(B) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 204a(a)(1)(B)) is amended by striking “Active Reserves” and inserting “Ready Reserve Corps”.

(c) Retirement of commissioned officers.—Section 211 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 212) is amended—

(1) by striking “the Service” each place it appears and inserting “the Regular Corps”;

(2) in subsection (a)(4), by striking “(in the case of an officer in the Reserve Corps)”;

(3) in subsection (c)—

(A) in paragraph (1)—

(i) by striking “or an officer of the Reserve Corps”; and

(ii) by inserting “or under section 221(a)(19)” after “subsection (a)”; and

(B) in paragraph (2), by striking “Regular or Reserve Corps” and inserting “Regular Corps or Ready Reserve Corps”; and

(4) in subsection (f), by striking “the Regular or Reserve Corps of”.

(d) Rights, privileges, etc. of officers and surviving beneficiaries.—Section 221 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 213a) is amended—

(1) in subsection (a), by adding at the end the following:

“(19) Chapter 1223, Retired Pay for Non-Regular Service.

“(20) Section 12601, Compensation: Reserve on active duty accepting from any person.

“(21) Section 12684, Reserves: separation for absence without authority or sentence to imprisonment.”; and

(2) in subsection (b)—

(A) by striking “Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare or his designee” and inserting “Secretary of Health and Human Services or the designee of such secretary”;

(B) by striking “(b) The authority vested” and inserting the following:

“(b) (1) The authority vested”;

(C) by striking “For purposes of” and inserting the following:

“(2) For purposes of”; and

(D) by adding at the end the following:

“(3) For purposes of paragraph (19) of subsection (a), the terms ‘Military department’, ‘Secretary concerned’, and ‘Armed forces’ in such title 10 shall be deemed to include, respectively, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the Commissioned Corps.”.

(e) Technical amendments.—Title II of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 202 et seq.) is amended—

(1) in sections 204 and 207(c), by striking “Regular or Reserve Corps” each place it appears and inserting “Regular Corps or Ready Reserve Corps”;

(2) in section 208(a), by striking “Regular and Reserve Corps” each place it appears and inserting “Regular Corps and Ready Reserve Corps”; and

(3) in section 205(c), 206(c), 210, and 219, and in subsections (a), (b), and (d) of section 207, by striking “Reserve Corps” each place it appears and inserting “Ready Reserve Corps”.