This bill requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to conduct an exercise, within four years, focused on preventing, responding to, recovering from, and reducing harm from an act of agroterrorism. The exercise must use scenarios that include attempts to transport into, or to deploy within, the United States a biological agent that could harm the agriculture and food critical infrastructure sector or related economic sectors. Participants must work together to test incident command, identify and allocate key resources, and find capability and capacity gaps at all government levels. The exercise must include coordination with federal departments and agencies; state, local, Tribal, and territorial agencies; private owners and operators of food and agricultural facilities and related sectors; emergency preparedness and response practitioners; and other subject matter experts.
Not later than 180 days after the exercise ends, the Secretary must send an after-action report (protecting classified information) to the House Committee on Homeland Security and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. The report must include findings, plans and a timeline to apply lessons learned to Department operations, and recommended legislative actions. The bill also defines terms used in the section, including agroterrorism, agroterrorist, biological agent, and critical infrastructure.
No publicly available information.
The bill states goals to enhance domestic preparedness for and collective response to terrorism, promote sharing of homeland security information, and test the security posture of the country regarding threats to the agriculture and food sector. Supporters emphasize coordinated multiagency and public-private exercises to identify resource needs, improve incident command, and address capability and capacity gaps.
No publicly available information.