II 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 859 

To amend the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 to provide 

for the conducts of activities to detect, and respond in a timely manner 

to, threats to animal health. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 6, 2013 

Mr. BENNET introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry 

A BILL 

To amend the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act 

of 2002 to provide for the conducts of activities to detect, 

and respond in a timely manner to, threats to animal 

health. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Animal and Public 

5 Health Protection Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. NATIONAL ANIMAL HEALTH LABORATORY NET2 WORK. 

3 Subtitle E of title X of the Farm Security and Rural 

4 Investment Act of 2002 (7 U.S.C. 8301 et seq.) is amend5 ed by inserting after section 10409 the following: 

6 ‘‘SEC. 10409A. NATIONAL ANIMAL HEALTH LABORATORY 

7 NETWORK. 

8 ‘‘(a) DEFINITION OF ELIGIBLE LABORATORY.—In 

9 this section, the term ‘eligible laboratory’ means a diag10 nostic laboratory that meets specific criteria developed by 

11 the Secretary, in consultation with State animal health of12 ficials, State veterinary diagnostic laboratories, and veteri13 nary diagnostic laboratories at institutions of higher edu14 cation. 

15 ‘‘(b) CONTRACTS.—The Secretary shall offer to enter 

16 into contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, or other 

17 legal instruments with eligible laboratories— 

18 ‘‘(1) to enhance the capability of the Sec19 retary— 

20 ‘‘(A) to detect, and respond in a timely 

21 manner to, emerging or existing threats to ani22 mal health; and 

23 ‘‘(B) to support the protection of public 

24 health, the environment, and the agricultural 

25 economy of the United States; 


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1 ‘‘(2) to provide the capacity and capability for 

2 standardized— 

3 ‘‘(A) test procedures, reference materials, 

4 and equipment; 

5 ‘‘(B) laboratory biosafety and biosecurity 

6 levels; 

7 ‘‘(C) quality management system require8 ments; 

9 ‘‘(D) interconnected electronic reporting 

10 and transmission of data; and 

11 ‘‘(E) evaluation for emergency prepared12 ness; and 

13 ‘‘(3) to coordinate the development, implemen14 tation, and enhancement of national veterinary diag15 nostic laboratory capabilities, with special emphasis 

16 on surveillance planning and vulnerability analysis, 

17 technology development and validation, training, and 

18 outreach. 

19 ‘‘(c) PRIORITY.—To the extent practicable and to the 

20 extent capacity and specialized expertise may be nec21 essary, the Secretary shall give priority to eligible labora22 tories at existing Federal facilities, State facilities, and fa23 cilities at institutions of higher education. 


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1 ‘‘(d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

2 is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 

3 $15,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2014 through 2018.’’. 

Æ 


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