National Agriculture and Food Defense Act of 2007

A bill to enhance the ability of the United States to prevent, prepare for, detect, and respond to agriculture and food emergencies.

7/17/2007--Introduced.
National Agriculture and Food Defense Act of 2007 - States that:
(1) the Secretary of Homeland Security (Secretary) shall lead federal, state, local, tribal, and private efforts to enhance the protection of critical U.S. infrastructure and key resources, including the agriculture and food system;
(2) the Secretary of Agriculture shall lead federal efforts relating to agriculture, meat, poultry, and egg food products;
(3) the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) shall lead federal efforts relating to other food products; and
(4) the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shall lead federal efforts relating to drinking water and waste water.
Establishes in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS):
(1) a Chief Medical Officer who shall serve as the Assistant Secretary for Health Affairs; and
(2) the agriculture and food defense rotational expertise program.
Establishes in the Department of Agriculture the position of Under Secretary for Protection, Preparedness, and Response.
Directs the Secretary of HHS to coordinate the public health surveillance of zoonotic diseases. Directs the Secretary to:
(1) prepare and submit to the appropriate congressional committees the national agriculture and food defense strategy;
(2) carry out vulnerability assessments of the agriculture and food system;
(3) implement mitigation strategies to protect critical production and processing nodes from diseases, pests, and poisonous agents;
(3) ensure that combined federal, state, and local capabilities are adequate to respond to a terrorist attack, disease outbreak, or other disaster affecting the U.S. agriculture and food system;
(4) assist the states with food and agriculture protection activities; and
(5) establish the Food and Agriculture Government Coordinating Council.
Directs the Secretary of Agriculture to:
(1) develop a national veterinary stockpile;
(2) develop a national plant disease recovery system;
(3) establish a National Veterinary Stockpile Advisory Committee;
(4) carry out a program (Agricultural Biosecurity Corps) to develop veterinary leaders with epidemiological expertise to respond to animal agriculture threats;
(5) develop a national plant diagnostic network;
(6) develop a national food emergency response network;
(7) develop a national animal health laboratory network;
(8) identify an increased production capacity goal for the rendering industry to meet animal disposal needs following a catastrophic animal disease outbreak; and
(9) conduct a study of irradiation technology use to enhance food defense capabilities. Directs the Secretaries concerned to submit an integrated food system defense budget.
Directs the Administrator to provide assistance to state, local, and tribal governments in assessing, decontaminating, and recovering from an agriculture or food emergency.


... morehide bill summarySee Full Bill Text

Sponsor

• Sen. Richard Burr [R, NC]
• and 1 Co-Sponsors
  • Sen. Susan Collins [R, ME]
  close

Committees

• Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

Amendments

This bill has no amendments.

Amendments to S.1804

Number	Status	Purpose

Bill Status

Make a Bill Status Widget

	OpenCongress widgets allow you to display information about bills and issue areas on your own website or blog. First, select which bill or issue you want to track, then customize the appearance of the panel, and finally paste a simple chunk of HTML into your site. Now your community will have an easy, up-to-date way to track the status of important bills and issues in Congress.

Introduced		Voted on by Senate		Voted on by House		Considered By President		Bill Becomes Law
July 17, 2007

Show All Actions (3 actions)Hide Actions

All Bill Actions

• Jul 17, 2007: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
• Jul 17, 2007: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR 7/18/2007 S9475-9476)
• Introduced on Jul 17, 2007.

---

Related Issue Areas:

• Food
• Agriculture
• Animal diseases
• Animals
• 39 more
• Budgets
• Business
• Congress
• Congressional reporting requirements
• Consumer education
• Consumers
• Department of Agriculture
• Department of Homeland Security
• Emergency management
• Environmental protection
• Epidemiology
• Executive departments
• Executive reorganization
• Federal advisory bodies
• Federal officials
• Food industry
• Food irradiation
• Food safety
• Food supply
• Foodborne diseases
• Government employees
• Hazardous substances
• Health surveys
• Livestock
• Meat inspection
• Medical care
• Medical laboratories
• Medicine
• Pest control
• Plant diseases
• Poisons
• Potable water
• Poultry
• Public health personnel
• Terrorism
• Veterinary medicine
• Waste water treatment
• Water pollution
• Water resources

Data from the Congressional Research Service

Show More User Statistics... Hide User Statistics

In the News

We are not currently finding any news articles on this topic using our daily automated search of Google News. However, if you know of a relevant news article to display here, OpenCongress site editors have the ability to add it manually. Simply e-mail us the web address of this page and the web address of your suggested news article: We'll post relevant links as quickly as possible. Also, if this topic is important to you, you could write a letter to the editor -- if a news article refers this specific topic by name, a link to that news article is likely to appear here soon.

Information made available by:

Blog Coverage

July 16, 2007 S. 1804, A bill to enhance the ability of the United States to ...

S. 1804 would enhance the ability of the United States to prevent, prepare for, detect, and respond to agriculture and food emergencies....

Was this article useful? Yes or No

Source: WashingtonWatch.com - Welcome to WashingtonWatc...

Did you find this article useful? Your opinion counts - together, we're finding the very best news and blog coverage about Congress available on the web.

July 16, 2007 Bill Action: Introduced: S. 1804: A bill to enhance the ability of ...

Richard Burr [R-NC] introduced S. 1804: A bill to enhance the ability of the United States to prevent, prepare for, detect, and respond to agriculture and food emergencies. [This event matched these monitors: Introduced Legislation ]

Was this article useful? Yes or No

Source: GovTrack.us Monitored Events

Did you find this article useful? Your opinion counts - together, we're finding the very best news and blog coverage about Congress available on the web.

See most useful blog posts

Information made available by: