They will present a bipartisan bill in the Chamber to create a National Corps of Public Health

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The team that fights the coronavirus from the White House 2:57

(CNN) - The House of Representatives plans to introduce a bipartisan bill on Tuesday to create a National Public Health Corps that will employ hundreds of thousands of people to help conduct tests, trace contacts, and eventually vaccinate those infected or potentially infected. with coronavirus.

The legislation aims to address the economic and health crisis by helping to create a national assessment strategy and recruit Americans looking for work in a weak market.

Representatives Chrissy Houlahan, a Pennsylvania Democrat, and Michael Waltz, a Florida Republican, who are serving their first terms in the House, told CNN that their motivations are to try to give Americans a way to express their common purpose. For months Houlahan, an Air Force Reserve captain, and Waltz, a green beret, have been associated with public service legislation.

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"It is important to continue that tradition of service, especially in times of great distress and need," said Houlahan. "We are definitely in one of those moments."

Waltz added that this bill would provide a "societal benefit," helping people learn leadership and discipline skills. Waltz also noted that Peace Corps volunteers and other national service participants have lost their jobs during the pandemic and that the federal government could "reuse" them for this program to address the crisis.

"If we have taxpayer money for these service programs, let's get a return on that investment the nation needs right now," said Waltz.

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Representatives Michael Waltz and Chrissy Houlahan.

The body would serve within the National and Community Service Corporation and would partner with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and with Health and Human Services (HHS) to locate members across the country. Houlahan estimated that the program could initially hire 200,000 to 300,000 people and cost millions of dollars, a fraction of the trillion-dollar legislation the House is considering this week.

"I sure hope something like this is included," Houlahan said.

There is support for similar legislation in the Senate. Senators Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware, and Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana, proposed in a recent CNN opinion piece "to rapidly expand our existing national service programs like AmeriCorps" to hire hundreds of thousands of new workers to test millions of Americans and track down those who might be infected.

“If we offer our citizens opportunities to serve their communities and help our country recover from this crisis, all while developing skills and earning a salary along the way, we know that hundreds of thousands will raise their hands and roll up their sleeves and go work, "they wrote.

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