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• U.S. Department of State

Summary

The agricultural and food infrastructure of the United States is potentially susceptible to terrorist attack using biological pathogens. In addition to the impacts of such an attack on the economy, some animal diseases could potentially be transmitted to humans. (These diseases are known as zoonotic diseases.) Scientific and medical research on plant and animal diseases may lead to the discovery and development of new diagnostics and countermeasures, reducing the risk and impact of a successful terrorist attack. To safeguard the United States against animal disease, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) engages in foreign animal disease research at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC). With the formation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2003, the PIADC facility was transferred from USDA to DHS, though USDA continues its research program at the facility. The DHS has identified the PIADC facility as too old and limited to continue to be the primary facility performing this research. Homeland Security Presidential Directive 9 tasks the Secretaries of Agriculture and Homeland Security to develop a plan to provide safe, secure, and state-of-the-art agriculture biocontainment laboratories for research and development of diagnostic capabilities and medical countermeasures for foreign animal and zoonotic diseases. To meet these obligations, DHS has announced plans to construct a new facility, the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF). This facility would house highcontainment laboratories able to handle the pathogens currently under investigation at PIADC, as well as other pathogens of interest. The DHS plans to select the site in 2008 and commission the new laboratories in 2014. The final construction costs would depend on the site location and actual construction time lines, but are projected to exceed $460 million. The plans announced by DHS to establish the NBAF have raised several issues that may interest Congress. Community concerns about safety and security, previously raised about PIADC and other laboratories being built to study dangerous pathogens, may also be raised about the NBAF. Construction of the new facility may create a need to reexamine how DHS and USDA coordinate and set research priorities. By law, research on foot and mouth disease is not permitted on the U.S. mainland. This policy would need to be changed before DHS could proceed with its plans to conduct such research at NBAF if it were sited on the U.S. mainland. Two bills introduced in the 110th Congress would modify this policy (H.R. 1717 and H.R. 2419). These bills take different approaches to addressing this policy concern. Although the PIADC laboratories are currently undergoing renovation and expansion, DHS plans to decontaminate and decommission them following opening of the proposed NBAF. The fate of the PIADC laboratories following transfer of its current research activities to the proposed NBAF remains uncertain.

Related Legislation:
• H.R.1717
• H.R.2419

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