- Members of the Task Force shall serve without compensation for their work on the Task Force, but members shall be allowed travel expenses, including per diem in lieu of subsistence, as authorized by law for persons serving intermittently in the Government service (5 U.S.C. 5701–5707).
- At the direction of the Chair, the Task Force may establish subgroups consisting exclusively of Task Force members or their designees under this section, as appropriate.
(b) Mission and Work.
- Consistent with applicable law and as soon as practicable, the Task Force shall provide specific recommendations to the President, through the Coordinator of the COVID–19 Response and Counselor to the President (COVID–19 Response Coordinator), for mitigating the health inequities caused or exacerbated by the COVID–19 pandemic and for preventing such inequities in the future. The recommendations shall include:
- recommendations for how agencies and State, local, Tribal, and territorial officials can best allocate COVID–19 resources, in light of disproportionately high rates of COVID–19 infection, hospitalization, and mortality in certain communities and disparities in COVID–19 outcomes by race, ethnicity, and other factors, to the extent permitted by law;
- recommendations for agencies with responsibility for disbursing COVID–19 relief funding regarding how to disburse funds in a manner that advances equity; and
- recommendations for agencies regarding effective, culturally aligned communication, messaging, and outreach to communities of color and other underserved populations.
- The Task Force shall submit a final report to the COVID–19 Response Coordinator addressing any ongoing health inequities faced by COVID–19 survivors that may merit a public health response, describing the factors that contributed to disparities in COVID–19 outcomes, and recommending actions to combat such disparities in future pandemic responses.
(c) Data Collection. To address the data shortfalls identified in section 1 of this order, and consistent with applicable law, the Task Force shall:
- collaborate with the heads of relevant agencies, consistent with the Executive Order entitled “Ensuring a Data-Driven Response to COVID–19 and Future High-Consequence Public Health Threats,” to develop recommendations for expediting data collection for communities of color and other underserved populations and identifying data sources, proxies, or indices that would enable development of short-term targets for pandemic-related actions for such communities and populations;
- cdevelop, in collaboration with the heads of relevant agencies, a set of longer-term recommendations to address these data shortfalls and other foundational data challenges, including those relating to data intersectionality, that must be tackled in order to better prepare and respond to future pandemics; and
- csubmit the recommendations described in this subsection to the President, through the COVID–19 Response Coordinator.
c(d) External Engagement. Consistent with the objectives set out in this order and with applicable law, the Task Force may seek the views of health professionals; policy experts; State, local, Tribal, and territorial health officials; faith-based leaders; businesses; health providers; community organizations; those with lived experience with homelessness, incarceration, discrimination, and other relevant issues; and other stakeholders.
c(e) Administration. Insofar as the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended (5 U.S.C. App.), may apply to the Task Force, any functions of the President under the Act, except for those in section 6 of the Act, shall be performed by the Secretary of HHS in accordance with the guidelines that have been issued by the Administrator of General Services. HHS shall
