The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would lose control over massive warehouses of drugs, medical supplies, and vaccines under a House bill being taken up this week.

The provision, part of the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act, or PAHPA, would fulfill a request by President Trump to shift the emergency supplies, formally known as the Strategic National Stockpile, from the CDC to the Department of Health and Human Services' assistant secretary for Preparedness and Response.

Proponents of shifting the $547 million program to a different agency say the supplies contained in the warehouses are meant not only to address the threats under which they were initially created, such as a terrorist attack or nuclear war, but also to fight off infectious diseases and to respond to natural disasters and even more unexpected threats. When the stockpile was created in 1999, the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response did not exist.

That agency is also responsible for choosing and buying the supplies in the stockpile, so supporters say the roles should fall under the same agency.

Rep. Susan Brooks, R-Ind., one of the authors of the bill, said the move would streamline public health emergency response measures so that "we are in a better position to respond with the appropriate supplies and resources to adequately protect the homeland and everyone who lives in it.”

Still, critics say the change would be disruptive when an emergency comes because the CDC has established relationships with local healthcare agencies after operating the stockpile for roughly two decades. The Senate version of the bill, which advanced almost unanimously out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, did not contain the stockpile change.

An aide to Brooks said members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's health subcommittee likely will have concerns and will want more information about the proposed change during the hearing on the bill, scheduled for Wednesday. The American Public Health Association has said that it has "serious concerns" about the potential transfer.

As the bill is being considered, the U.S. and other countries are facing various outbreaks. In the U.S., at least eight states have reported outbreaks and deaths from hepatitis A, an illness that can lead to liver failure or death if left untreated. The illnesses appear to be spreading through needle sharing or through infections that first sicked restaurant workers and then spread to customers.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is fighting a deadly outbreak of Ebola with an experimental vaccine and financial assistance from the U.S. In India, at least 17 people have died from the Nipah virus, which can lead to severe brain swelling and death. Global health officials have sent an experimental antibody to the region.

The pandemics bill up for consideration originally passed soon after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the Gulf Coast and a strain of bird flu was spreading across Europe and Asia. The law aimed to better organize the ways that federal, state, and local departments respond to outbreaks and disasters, including by working with healthcare facilities, encouraging vaccine development, and boosting the number of healthcare workers.

Congress has until the end of September to pass a final version before the program expires. The law has been in place since 2006, and the latest provisions would go into effect over the next five years.

The House bill makes other deviations from the Senate version. For instance, it gives the HHS secretary authority to transfer money out of an emergency response fund as needs emerge. In recent years, public health funding has been mired in political debates, which has resulted in delayed appropriations and has caused the secretary to shift money from other agencies.

The idea, said the aide to Brooks, is put forward by "members who recognize that going from crisis to crisis with emergency supplementals isn't necessarily the best way to respond to public health needs."

The Senate version uses clarifying language about when the funds can be immediately used.

Subcommittee Chairman Michael Burgess, R-Texas, said it was "critical" to reauthorize the program in a timely way.

“This is important legislation that will bolster our nation’s preparedness infrastructure, and support the development of critical medical countermeasures in the instances of a wide-ranging variety of attacks," Burgess said. "Our nation has learned much from events at home and abroad since the program’s last reauthorization."