Statement of Dr. Doug Meckes, Branch Chief, Food, Agriculture, and Veterinary Defense Branch, Office of Health Affairs, before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia, "Agro-Defense: Responding to Threats against America's Agriculture and Food System"

Release Date: September 13, 2011

Good afternoon Chairman Akaka, Ranking Member Johnson, and Members of the Subcommittee,

My name is Dr. Doug Meckes and I am the Branch Chief of the Food, Agriculture, and Veterinary Defense Branch of the Office of Health Affairs (OHA) at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you regarding DHS's efforts to defend our Nation's agriculture, food, human and animal health.

DHS's Role in Agro-Security and Food Safety

Homeland Security Presidential Directive 9: Defense of United States Agriculture and Food (HSPD-9), establishes national policy to defend the agriculture and food system against terrorist attacks, major disasters, and other emergencies. DHS is responsible for coordinating the overall national effort to protect the critical infrastructure and key resources of the United States. DHS works to complement the efforts of our partners, including other federal agencies that focus on food and agriculture safety, to protect agriculture and food systems which are critical to our public health and economic well-being. In addition, DHS works to mitigate the consequences associated with catastrophic incidents, and coordinates and integrates federal assets to prevent, protect against, prepare for, respond to, and recover from incidents.

OHA is specifically charged by the Secretary of DHS with providing oversight and management of DHS's implementation of HSPD-9 and coordinating those efforts with other federal departments and agencies, state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, and the private sector.

DHS's Lead HSPD-9 Responsibilities

With the release of HSPD-9 in February 2004, the Secretary of DHS was identified as the lead for five, and co-lead for eight, of the 19 specific tasks delineated in HSPD-9.

DHS leads HSPD-9 efforts to:
•Create a new biological threat awareness capacity to enhance detection and characterization of an attack;
•Ensure that the combined federal, state, and local response capabilities are adequate to respond quickly and effectively to a terrorist attack, major disease outbreak, or other disaster affecting the national agriculture or food infrastructure;
•Develop a coordinated agriculture and food-specific standardized response plan;
•Work with appropriate private sector entities to establish an effective information sharing and analysis mechanism for agriculture and food; and
•Establish university-based centers of excellence in agriculture and food security.

Today I would like to share with you the progress DHS has made in achieving the objectives of HSPD-9.

Biological Threat Awareness Capacity

One of OHA's primary responsibilities is to mitigate the consequences of biological incidents through early detection. Prompt identification of a biological incident has the potential to improve the delivery of medical countermeasures and save lives.

Within DHS, OHA operates, manages, and supports the Department's biological defense and surveillance programs. Two programs that provide biological threat awareness capacity are BioWatch and the National Biosurveillance Integration System (NBIS).

OHA's BioWatch program is the only federally-managed, locally-operated, nationwide environmental detection system designed to detect the intentional release of aerosolized biological agents. This program deploys collection devices and analytical capability in more than thirty high-risk metropolitan areas throughout the nation. BioWatch provides public health experts with a warning of the presence of a biological agent before exposed individuals develop symptoms of illness. This “detect-to-treatâ€