PRIA, Government Policy, Made Personal

Summary

The Secretaries of Health and Human Services, Defense, Agriculture, and Homeland Security, along with other agencies that handle biodefense and in consultation with the President’s national security aide and the Office of Management and Budget as needed, must work together to update the National Biodefense Implementation Plan after reviewing a threat assessment and any outside input. The updated plan must explain each agency’s roles and how they share information, how decisions and resource use will be made, resource plans for each agency (including the Biodefense Coordination Team), how data (including non‑federal capabilities) will be analyzed, and short-, medium-, and long-term goals with measures to track progress. Those Secretaries must send the updated plan to Congress within 6 months after the threat assessment is finished. They must also jointly assess current and possible biological threats (natural or man-made), submit that assessment not later than 1 year after January 1, 2021, brief Congress within 30 days of submitting it, update the assessment every two years, and provide unclassified reports with a classified annex if needed. “Appropriate congressional committees” means the main House and Senate committees on armed services, health, homeland security, agriculture, intelligence, and foreign affairs. Nothing here changes existing agency authorities.

Title 6, §106

Domestic Security, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)In general

The Secretaries of Health and Human Services, Defense, Agriculture, Homeland Security, and all other Departments and agencies with responsibilities for biodefense, such as the Department of State, in consultation with the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, as appropriate, shall jointly, after reviewing the biodefense threat assessment described in subsection (d) and any relevant input from external stakeholders, as appropriate, update the National Biodefense Implementation Plan developed under section 104 of this title to clearly document established processes, roles, and responsibilities related to the National Biodefense Strategy.

(b)Specific updates

The updated National Biodefense Implementation Plan shall—

(1)describe the roles and responsibilities of the Federal departments and agencies, including internal and external coordination procedures, in identifying and sharing information between and among Federal departments and agencies, as described in section 104(b)(4) of this title and consistent with the statutory roles and authorities of such departments and agencies;

(2)describe roles, responsibilities, and processes for decisionmaking, including decisions regarding use of resources for effective risk management across the enterprise;

(3)describe resource plans for each department and agency with responsibility for biodefense to support implementation of the strategy within the jurisdiction of such department or agency, including for the Biodefense Coordination Team, as appropriate;

(4)describe guidance and methods for analyzing the data collected from agencies to include non-Federal resources and capabilities to the extent practicable; and

(5)describe and update, as appropriate, short-, medium-, and long-term goals for executing the National Biodefense Strategy and metrics for meeting each objective of the Strategy.

(c)Submittal to Congress

The Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Agriculture, and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall, not later than 6 months after the date of the completion of the assessment in subsection (d)(1)(A), submit the updated Implementation Plan to the appropriate congressional committees.

(d)Updated biodefense threat assessment

(1)In general

The Secretaries of Health and Human Services, Defense, Agriculture, and Homeland Security, shall jointly, and in consultation with the Director of National Intelligence, and other agency heads as appropriate—

(A)conduct an assessment of current and potential biological threats against the United States, both naturally occurring and man-made, either accidental or deliberate, including the potential for catastrophic biological threats, such as a pandemic;

(B)not later than 1 year after January 1, 2021, submit the findings of the assessment conducted under subparagraph (A) to the Federal officials described in subsection (d)(1)and the appropriate congressional committees described in subsection (e);

(C)not later than 30 days after the date on which the assessment is submitted under subparagraph (B), conduct a briefing for the appropriate congressional committees on the findings of the assessment;

(D)update the assessment under subparagraph (A) biennially, as appropriate, and provide the findings of such updated assessments to the Federal officials described in subsection (d)(1) and the appropriate congressional committees; and

(E)conduct briefings for the appropriate congressional committees as needed any time an assessment under this paragraph is updated.

(2)Classification and format

Assessments under paragraph (1) shall be submitted in an unclassified format and include a classified annex, as appropriate.

(e)Appropriate congressional committees defined

In this section, the term “appropriate congressional committees” means the following:

(1)The Committees on Armed Services of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

(2)The Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate.

(3)The Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate.

(4)The Committee on Agriculture of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate.

(5)The Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives and the Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate.

(6)The Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate.

(f)Rule of construction

Nothing in this section shall be construed to alter, limit, or duplicate the roles, responsibilities, authorities, or current activities, as established in statute or otherwise through existing practice or policy, of each Federal department or agency with responsibilities for biodefense or otherwise relevant to implementation of the National Biodefense Strategy.

Editorial Notes

Codification Section was enacted as part of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, and not as part of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 which comprises this chapter.

§106 Update of National Biodefense Implementation Plan

Summary

Title 6, §106

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Citations & Metadata