I 
110TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 667 
To authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to enter into cooperative agreements 
with States to augment their efforts to conduct early detection and 
surveillance to prevent the establishment or spread of plant pests that 
endanger agriculture, the environment, and the economy of the United 
States, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 24, 2007 
Mr. COSTA (for himself, Mr. PUTNAM, Mr. FARR, Mr. CARDOZA, Mr. 
ENGLISH
of Pennsylvania, Mr. ROHRABACHER, Mr. HONDA, Mr. 
HERGER, Mr. BACA, Mr. FILNER, Mr. RADANOVICH, Mr. THOMPSON of 
California, Mr. CALVERT, Mrs. MCMORRIS RODGERS, Mr. GALLEGLY, 
Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California, Mr. HINOJOSA, Mr. GEORGE MILLER 
of California, Mr. NUNES, Mrs. CAPPS, Mr. CRENSHAW, Mr. CARTER, 
Mr. GARY G. MILLER of California, Mrs. DAVIS of California, Ms. MAT-
SUI, Ms. WOOLSEY, Mr. SALAZAR, Mr. BOYD
of Florida, Mr. 
BUTTERFIELD, Mr. BONNER, and Ms. HIRONO) introduced the following 
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture 
A BILL 
To authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to enter into coop-
erative agreements with States to augment their efforts 
to conduct early detection and surveillance to prevent 
the establishment or spread of plant pests that endanger 
agriculture, the environment, and the economy of the 
United States, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Early Pest Detection 
and Surveillance Improvement Act’’. 
SEC. 2. SUPPORT FOR COMMODITY INSPECTION EFFORTS 
TO PREVENT INTRODUCTION OR SPREAD OF 
PESTS. 
(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
(1) 
DEPARTMENT
OF
AGRICULTURE.—The 
term ‘‘department of agriculture’’ means an agency 
of a State that has a legal responsibility to perform 
early pest detection and surveillance activities. 
(2) EARLY
PEST
DETECTION
AND
SURVEIL-
LANCE.—The term ‘‘early pest detection and surveil-
lance’’ means the full range of activities undertaken 
to find newly introduced pests, whether new to the 
United States or new to certain areas of the United 
States, before the pests become established, or be-
fore pest infestations become too large and costly to 
eradicate or control. 
(3) PEST.—The term ‘‘pest’’ has the meaning 
given the term ‘‘plant pest’’ in section 403(14) of 
the Plant Protection Act (7 U.S.C. 7702(14)). 
(4) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 
the Secretary of Agriculture. 
(5) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means— 
(A) each of the several States; 
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(B) the District of Columbia; 
(C) the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; 
(D) Guam; 
(E) American Samoa; 
(F) the Commonwealth of the Northern 
Mariana Islands; 
(G) the Federated States of Micronesia; 
(H) the Republic of the Marshall Islands; 
(I) the Republic of Palau; and 
(J) the United States Virgin Islands. 
(b) COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS AUTHORIZED.—The 
Secretary of Agriculture shall enter into a cooperative 
agreement with each department of agriculture that 
agrees to conduct early pest detection surveillance activi-
ties in accordance with guidelines established under the 
Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey. The pest detection 
surveillance activities of the department of agriculture of 
a State may include inspection and surveillance of domes-
tic plant shipments between that State and other States. 
(c) APPLICATION.—A department of agriculture seek-
ing to enter into a cooperative agreement under this sec-
tion shall submit an application to the Secretary con-
taining such information as the Secretary may require. 
The Secretary shall notify applicants of the following: 
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(1) The requirements to be imposed on a de-
partment of agriculture for auditing of, and report-
ing on, the use of any funds provided by the Sec-
retary under the cooperative agreement. 
(2) The criteria to be used to ensure that early 
pest detection and surveillance activities supported 
under the cooperative agreement are based on 
knowledge, experience, and capabilities. 
(3) The means of identifying pathways of pest 
introductions. 
(4) The methods to be used to determine the 
level of support for proposed early pest detection 
and surveillance activities by private and public in-
terests adversely affected by pests. 
(d) CONSULTATION.—The Secretary will consult with 
the National Plant Board and the National Association 
of State Departments of Agriculture in carrying out this 
section. 
(e) BASE FUNDS UNDER AGREEMENTS.—Subject to 
the availability of appropriated funds to carry out this sec-
tion, each State department of agriculture with which the 
Secretary enters into a cooperative agreement under this 
section shall receive a base level of funding of $250,000 
for each of fiscal years 2008 through 2012. If the funds 
available for a fiscal year are insufficient to provide the 
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full amount specified in this subsection, the Secretary 
shall reduce the amount provided to each State as nec-
essary so that each State receives an equal amount of the 
available funds. 
(f) 
ADDITIONAL
FUNDS; 
SPECIAL
CONSIDER-
ATIONS.—After the application of subsection (e), the Sec-
retary shall distribute the remainder of the funds appro-
priated to carry out this section, if any, to departments 
of agriculture of States that are recognized as high-risk 
sentinel States for one or more pest, based on the fol-
lowing factors: 
(1) The number of international airports and 
maritime facilities in the State. 
(2) The volume of international passenger and 
cargo entry into the State. 
(3) The geographic location of the State, such 
that its location would be conducive to agricultural 
pest and disease establishment due to both the 
State’s climate and its crop diversity. 
(4) The State has received an emergency dec-
laration, as authorized by section 442 of the Plant 
Protection Act (7 U.S.C. 7772), due to an agricul-
tural pest or disease of Federal concern. 
(5) Such other factors as the Secretary deter-
mines to be appropriate. 
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(g) USE OF FUNDS.— 
(1) PEST DETECTION AND SURVEILLANCE AC-
TIVITIES.—A department of agriculture that receives 
funds under this section shall use the funds to carry 
out early pest detection and surveillance activities to 
prevent the introduction of a pest or facilitate the 
eradication of a pest. 
(2) SUBAGREEMENTS.—Nothing in this section 
is intended to prevent the department of agriculture 
of a State from using funds received under sub-
section (e) or (f) to enter into subagreements with 
political subdivisions in the State that have legal re-
sponsibilities relating to agricultural pest and dis-
ease surveillance. 
(3) TREATMENT OF FUNDS.—Funds provided 
under subsection (e) or (f) are intended for imple-
mentation purposes, and it is expected that adminis-
trative or overhead costs will be limited in a manner 
to achieve this purpose. 
(4) RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER FUNDS AND PRO-
GRAMS.—Funds provided under subsection (e) or (f) 
are intended to augment the funds otherwise avail-
able to a department of agriculture to perform early 
pest detection and surveillance activities, and not to 
replace such funds. 
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(h) REPORTING REQUIREMENT.—Not later than 180 
days after the date of completion of an early pest detection 
and surveillance activity conducted by a department of ag-
riculture using funds provided under this section, the de-
partment of agriculture shall submit to the Secretary a 
report that describes the purposes and results of the ac-
tivities. 
(i) NO EFFECT ON PILT PAYMENTS.—The receipt 
of funds by the department of agriculture of a State under 
this section shall have no effect on the amount of any pay-
ment received by the State under chapter 69 of title 31, 
United States Code. 
(j) AUTHORIZATION
OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 
are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary such 
sums as may be necessary for each of the fiscal years 2008 
through 2012 to carry out this section. Not more than 
five percent of the funds appropriated pursuant to this 
authorization of appropriations for a fiscal year may be 
used by the Secretary for administrative costs. 
Æ 
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