§104 National Biodefense Strategy

Summary

The Secretaries of Defense, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, and Agriculture must work together to create a national biodefense strategy and an implementation plan. They must review and update the plan every two years. The plan must cover an inventory of current biodefense rules and agreements; descriptions of biological threats (including biological warfare, bioterrorism, natural disease outbreaks, and accidents); what the government is now doing to prevent, detect, respond to, and recover from those threats; how agencies share information and coordinate; the interagency capabilities needed; and recommendations to strengthen and formalize U.S. biodefense. The four Secretaries must send the plan to the appropriate congressional committees no later than 275 days after December 23, 2016, in unclassified form with a possible classified annex. They must give a joint briefing by March 1, 2017, and every year after that until March 1, 2025. Within 180 days after the plan is sent, the Comptroller General must review it for gaps and resource needs. "Appropriate congressional committees" means the congressional defense committees; the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee; the House Homeland Security Committee and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee; and the House and Senate agriculture committees.