A bill to provide for enhanced food-borne illness surveillance and food safety capacity.

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Improving Food-borne Illness 
Surveillance and Response Act of 2008''.

SEC. 2. ENHANCED FOOD-BORNE ILLNESS SURVEILLANCE.

    (a) In General.--
            (1) Authority.--The Secretary of Health and Human Services 
        (referred to in this section as the ``Secretary'') shall 
        strengthen and expand food-borne illness surveillance systems 
        to--
                    (A) inform and evaluate efforts to prevent food-
                borne illness; and
                    (B) enhance the identification and investigation 
                of, and response to, food-borne illness outbreaks.
            (2) Food-borne illness outbreak.--For purposes of this 
        section, the term ``food-borne illness outbreak'' means the 
        occurrence of 2 or more cases of a similar illness resulting 
        from the ingestion of a common food.
    (b) Food-Borne Illness Surveillance Systems.--The Secretary, acting 
through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 
shall enhance food-borne illness surveillance systems to improve the 
collection, analysis, reporting, and usefulness of data on food-borne 
illnesses by--
            (1) coordinating food-borne illness surveillance systems, 
        including complaint systems, in order to--
                    (A) produce better information on illnesses 
                associated with foods, including sources and risk 
                factors for infections by emerging pathogens; and
                    (B) facilitate sharing of data acquisition and 
                findings on a more timely basis among governmental 
                agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, 
                the Food Safety and Inspection Service, and State and 
                local agencies, and with the public;
            (2) augmenting such systems to improve attribution of a 
        food-borne illness outbreak to a specific food;
            (3) developing improved epidemiological tools for obtaining 
        quality exposure data, microbiological methods for classifying 
        cases and detecting clusters, and improved tracebacks to 
        rapidly and specifically identify contaminated food products;
            (4) expanding capacity of such systems for implementation 
        of fingerprinting strategies for food-borne infectious agents, 
        including parasites and hepatitis A, in order to increase 
        pathogen discovery efforts to identify new or rarely documented 
        causes of food-borne illness;
            (5) allowing timely public access to de-identified, 
        aggregate surveillance data;
            (6) at least annually, publishing current reports on 
        findings from such systems;
            (7) exploring establishment of registries for long-term 
        case follow-up to better characterize late complications of 
        food-borne illness;
            (8) increasing participation in national networks of public 
        health and food regulatory agencies and laboratories to--
                    (A) allow public health officials at the Federal, 
                State, and local levels to share and accept laboratory 
                analytic findings; and
                    (B) identify food-borne illness outbreaks and 
                attribute such outbreaks to specific foods through 
                submission of standardized molecular subtypes (also 
                known as ``fingerprints'') of food-borne illness 
                pathogens to a centralized database; and
            (9) establishing a flexible mechanism for rapidly 
        supporting scientific research by academic centers of 
        excellence, which may include staff representing academic 
        clinical researchers, food microbiologists, animal and plant 
        disease specialists, ecologists, and other allied disciplines.
    (c) Improving State Surveillance Capacity.--The Secretary, acting 
through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
and the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, shall improve capacity for 
surveillance in the States by--
            (1) supporting outbreak investigations with needed 
        specialty expertise, including epidemiological, 
        microbiological, and environmental expertise, to assist 
        identification of underlying common sources and contributing 
        factors;
            (2) identifying, disseminating, and supporting 
        implementation of model practices at the State and local level 
        for--
                    (A) facilitating rapid shipment of clinical 
                isolates from clinical laboratories to State public 
                health laboratories to avoid delays in testing;
                    (B) conducting rapid and more standardized 
                interviewing of cases associated with major enteric 
                pathogens, including prior to designation of clusters 
                as food-borne illness outbreaks;
                    (C) conducting and evaluating rapid and 
                standardized interviews of healthy control persons;
                    (D) sharing information on a timely basis--
                            (i) within public health and food 
                        regulatory agencies;
                            (ii) among such agencies;
                            (iii) with the food industry;
                            (iv) with healthcare providers; and
                            (v) with the public;
            (3) developing, regularly updating, and disseminating 
        training curricula on food-borne illness surveillance 
        investigations, including standard sampling methods and 
        laboratory procedures;
            (4) integrating new molecular diagnostic tools for 
        parasites into web-based consultation services for parasitic 
        infections to accelerate the identification of these food-borne 
        infectious agents;
            (5) supporting research to develop and deploy new subtyping 
        methods for salmonella, E. coli, campylobacter, and other 
        pathogens, to increase the speed and accuracy of diagnoses;
            (6) determining minimum core competencies for public health 
        laboratories, and developing self-evaluation and proficiency-
        testing tools for such laboratories;
            (7) facilitating regional public health laboratory 
        partnerships to leverage resources, including equipment and 
        physical space, and increase surge capacity;
            (8) providing technical assistance, which may include the 
        detailing of officers and employees of the Secretary, to State 
        and local public health and food regulatory agencies;
            (9) partnering with the Food and Drug Administration to 
        increase communication, coordination, and integration of food-
        borne illness surveillance and outbreak investigation 
        activities; and
            (10) developing and periodically updating response and 
        interview procedures so that such procedures are standardized 
        and tested.
    (d) Program Activities.--The Secretary shall carry out activities 
to support core food safety functions of State and local public health 
laboratories, including--
            (1) establishing fellowships, stipends, and scholarships to 
        address critical workforce shortages;
            (2) training and coordination of State and local personnel;
            (3) establishing partnerships between private and public 
        laboratories to facilitate sharing of positive enteric 
        specimens and improve surge capacity;
            (4) strengthening capacity to participate in existing or 
        new food-borne illness surveillance systems; and
            (5) the purchase and maintenance of data systems hardware 
        and software and laboratory equipment.
    (e) Partnerships.--Not later than 180 days after the date of 
enactment of the Improving Food-borne Illness Surveillance and Response 
Act of 2008, the Secretary shall establish a diverse working group of 
experts and stakeholders from Federal, State, and local food safety and 
health agencies, the food industry, consumer organizations, and 
academia. Such working group shall provide the Secretary, through at 
least annual meetings of the working group and an annual public report, 
advice and recommendations on an ongoing and regular basis regarding 
the improvement of food-borne illness surveillance and implementation 
of this section, including advice and recommendations on--
            (1) the priority needs of regulatory agencies, the food 
        industry, and consumers for information and analysis on food-
        borne illness and its causes that can be used to prevent food-
        borne illness;
            (2) opportunities to improve the effectiveness of 
        initiatives at the Federal, State, and local levels, including 
        coordination and integration of activities among Federal 
        agencies, and between the Federal, State, and local levels of 
        government;
            (3) improvement in the timeliness and depth of access by 
        regulatory and health agencies, the food industry, academic 
        researchers, and consumers to food-borne illness surveillance 
        data collected by government agencies at all levels, including 
        data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and 
        Prevention;
            (4) key barriers to improvement in food-borne illness 
        surveillance and its utility for preventing food-borne illness 
        at Federal, State, and local levels; and
            (5) specific actions to reduce barriers to improvement, 
        implement the working group's recommendations, and achieve the 
        purposes of this section, with measurable objectives and 
        timelines, and identification of resource and staffing needs.

SEC. 3. LEVERAGING AND ENHANCING STATE AND LOCAL ROLES.

    Title III of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 241 et seq.) 
is amended by adding at the end the following:

                  ``PART S--PROGRAMS RELATING TO FOOD

``SEC. 399JJ. PLAN TO IMPROVE FOOD SAFETY CAPACITY AT THE STATE AND 
              LOCAL LEVEL.

    ``(a) Goals.--The Secretary shall leverage and enhance the food 
safety capacity and roles of State and local agencies and integrate 
State and local agencies as fully as possible into national food safety 
efforts, in order to achieve the following goals:
            ``(1) Improve food-borne illness outbreak response and 
        containment.
            ``(2) Improve the contribution of food-borne illness 
        surveillance and investigation to the prevention of food-borne 
        illness.
            ``(3) Strengthen oversight of food safety at the retail 
        level.
            ``(4) Strengthen the capacity of State and local agencies 
        to carry out inspections and enforce safety standards in food 
        processing establishments, as part of a national strategy and 
        plan to provide an adequate level of inspection and achieve 
        compliance with safety standards in such establishments.
            ``(5) Make more effective use of the Nation's combined food 
        safety resources to reduce the burden of food-borne illness.
    ``(b) Survey.--In preparation for development of the plan required 
by subsection (c), the Secretary shall, not later than 1 year after the 
date of enactment of the Improving Food-borne Illness Surveillance and 
Response Act of 2008, complete a survey of State and local capacities, 
and needs for enhancement, with respect to--
            ``(1) staffing levels and expertise available to perform 
        food safety functions;
            ``(2) laboratory capacity to support surveillance, outbreak 
        response, inspection, and enforcement activities;
            ``(3) information systems to support data management and 
        sharing of food safety information among State and local 
        agencies and with counterparts at the Federal level;
            ``(4) legal authorities of State and local agencies to 
        support the roles of such agencies in a national food safety 
        system; and
            ``(5) organizational arrangements for managing and 
        coordinating food safety activities.
    ``(c) Plan.--Taking into account the goals established in 
subsection (a), results from the survey required in subsection (b), and 
consultations with State and local agencies and other food safety 
stakeholders, the Secretary shall, not later than 2 years after the 
date of enactment of the Improving Food-borne Illness Surveillance and 
Response Act of 2008, develop, publish, and begin implementation of a 
plan that includes the following elements:
            ``(1) Criteria for assessing the adequacy of State and 
        local capacity to perform food safety functions as part of a 
        national food safety system.
            ``(2) Priorities for enhancing the capacity of State and 
        local agencies.
            ``(3) Action plans for meeting the highest priority 
        capacity needs, including budget requirements and financing 
        plans that take into account Federal, State, and local 
        resources.
            ``(4) Improved coordination and information flow among 
        Federal, State, and local agencies to strengthen food-borne 
        illness surveillance, outbreak response, and investigation and 
        to ensure that agencies at all levels have the information on 
        origins and causes of food-borne illness that such agencies 
        need to plan preventive measures.
            ``(5) Integration of the inspection and compliance programs 
        in food processing establishments of the Food and Drug 
        Administration and State and local agencies, including--
                    ``(A) joint planning and priority setting to ensure 
                that the collective effort has the greatest possible 
                impact on achieving compliance with food safety 
                standards and reducing food-borne illness;
                    ``(B) elimination of barriers to the free flow of 
                information among the Food and Drug Administration and 
                State and local agencies with respect to inspection and 
                compliance programs and integration of State and 
                Federal inspection and laboratory data systems;
                    ``(C) steps to expand, and ensure the vigor and 
                consistency of, State inspection of processing 
                establishments under contract to the Food and Drug 
                Administration; and
                    ``(D) reliance by the Food and Drug Administration 
                on State inspection and food sample analyses in Federal 
                enforcement activities.
    ``(d) Food Safety Capacity Building Grants.--
            ``(1) In general.--The Secretary shall make grants to State 
        and local agencies to enhance State and local food safety 
        capacity and programs and support achievement of the goals 
        established in subsection (a). In awarding such grants, the 
        Secretary shall take into account the criteria and priorities 
        established by the Secretary under subsection (c).
            ``(2) Funding.--There are authorized to be appropriated to 
        carry out paragraph (1), $25,000,000 for each of the fiscal 
        years 2010, 2011, and 2012.
    ``(e) Report to Congress.--Not later than 1 year after the date of 
enactment of the Improving Food-borne Illness Surveillance and Response 
Act of 2008, and on an annual basis thereafter, the Secretary shall 
submit to Congress a report that describes--
            ``(1) progress made in implementing this section, including 
        any obstacles to such implementation; and
            ``(2) any legislative recommendations or additional 
        resources needed for full implementation.''.

Summary: Improving Food-borne Illness Surveillance and Response Act of 2008 - Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to strengthen and expand foodborne illness surveillance systems to: (1) inform and evaluate efforts to prevent foodborne illness; and (2) enhance the identification and investigation of, and response to, foodborne illness outbreaks.

Requires the Secretary, acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to enhance foodborne illness surveillance systems to improve the collection, analysis, reporting, and usefulness of data on foodborne illnesses.

Requires the Secretary, acting through the Director and the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, to improve capacity for surveillance in states, including by: (1) supporting outbreak investigations with needed specialty expertise; (2) supporting model practices in states; and (3) developing training curricula on foodborne illness surveillance investigations.

Directs the Secretary to: (1) carry out activities to support core food safety functions of state and local public health laboratories; and (2) establish a working group to advise the Secretary regarding the improvement of foodborne illness surveillance and implementation of this Act.

Amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary to: (1) leverage and enhance the food safety capacity and roles of state and local agencies; (2) survey state and local capacities and enhancement needs; (3) develop a plan addressing food safety functions at state and local levels; and (4) make grants to state and local agencies to enhance food safety capacity and programs.