§7656 Designation of Crisis Management Team within Department

Summary

The Secretary of Agriculture must create a Crisis Management Team inside the Department of Agriculture. The team must include senior staff from each relevant agency and be led by someone with strong management and communication skills. The team must write and keep up a Department-wide crisis plan and clear steps for using it. It must make sure staff follow the plan and know how to report problems. The team coordinates gathering and sharing information, makes sure spokespeople give accurate, timely, and science-based messages the public can understand, and works with other federal, state, local, industry, and public groups. It also works with the Advisory Board on research priorities about animal health, natural disasters, food safety, and similar issues. The Secretary must try to make formal agreements with other federal agencies to ensure coordinated responses and consistent public information, for example among the Department, CDC, and FDA for food-borne threats.