Selected Sections of the USA
Patriot Act Related to Public Health
Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing
Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA
Patriot Act) Act of 2001, PUBLIC LAW 107-56 [H.R. 3162], An Act To deter
and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world, to
enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and for other purposes.
(OCTOBER 26, 2001)
SEC. 814. DETERRENCE AND PREVENTION OF CYBERTERRORISM.
(a) CLARIFICATION OF PROTECTION OF PROTECTED COMPUTERS.--Section
1030(a)(5) of title 18. United States Code, is amended-- . . .
(4) by adding at the end the following:
"(B) by conduct described in clause (i), (ii), or (iii) of
subparagraph (A), caused (or, in the case of an attempted offense,
would, if completed, have caused)--
"(iii) physical injury to any person;
"(iv) a threat to public health or safety; or
SEC. 1013. EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE CONCERNING THE
PROVISION OF FUNDING FOR BIOTERRORISM PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE.
(a) FINDINGS.--The Senate finds the following:
(1) Additional steps must be taken to better prepare the United
States to respond to potential bioterrorism attacks.
(2) The threat of a bioterrorist attack is still remote, but is
increasing for a variety of reasons, including--
(A) public pronouncements by Osama bin Laden that it is his religious
duty to acquire weapons of mass destruction, including chemical and
biological weapons;
(B) the callous disregard for innocent human life as demonstrated by
the terrorists' attacks of September 11, 2001;
(C) the resources and motivation of known terrorists and their
sponsors and supporters to use biological warfare;
(D) recent scientific and technological advances in agent delivery
technology such as aerosolization that have made weaponization of
certain germs much easier; and
(E) the increasing access to the technologies and expertise necessary
to construct and deploy chemical and biological weapons of mass
destruction.
(3) Coordination of Federal. State, and local terrorism research,
preparedness, and response programs must be improved.
(4) States, local areas, and public health officials must have
enhanced resources and expertise in order to respond to a potential
bioterrorist attack.
(5) National, State, and local communication capacities must be
enhanced to combat the spread of chemical and biological illness.
(6) Greater resources must be provided to increase the capacity of
hospitals and local health care workers to respond to public health
threats.
(7) Health care professionals must be better trained to recognize,
diagnose, and treat illnesses arising from biochemical attacks.
(8) Additional supplies may be essential to increase the readiness of
the United States to respond to a bio-attack.
(9) Improvements must be made in assuring the safety of the food
supply.
(10) New vaccines and treatments are needed to assure that we have an
adequate response to a biochemical attack.
(11) Government research, preparedness, and response programs need to
utilize private sector expertise and resources.
(12) Now is the time to strengthen our public health system and
ensure that the United States is adequately prepared to respond to
potential bioterrorist attacks, natural infectious disease outbreaks,
and other challenges and potential threats to the public health.
(b) SENSE OF THE SENATE.--It is the sense of the Senate that the
United States should make a substantial new investment this year toward
the following:
(1) Improving State and local preparedness capabilities by upgrading
State and local surveillance epidemiology, assisting in the development
of response plans, assuring adequate staffing and training of health
professionals to diagnose and care for victims of bioterrorism,
extending the electronics communicationsnetworks and training personnel,
and improving public health laboratories.
(2) Improving hospital response capabilities by assisting hospitals
in developing plans for a bioterrorist attack and improving the surge
capacity of hospitals.
(3) Upgrading the bioterrorism capabilities of the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention through improving rapid identification
and health early warning systems.
(4) Improving disaster response medical systems, such as the National
Disaster Medical System and the Metropolitan Medical Response System and
Epidemic Intelligence Service.
(5) Targeting research to assist with the development of appropriate
therapeutics and vaccines for likely bioterrorist agents and assisting
with expedited drug and device review through the Food and Drug
Administration.
(6) Improving the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile program by
increasing the amount of necessary therapies (including smallpox
vaccines and other post-exposure vaccines) and ensuring the appropriate
deployment of stockpiles.
(7) Targeting activities to increase food safety at the Food and Drug
Administration.
(8) Increasing international cooperation to secure dangerous
biological agents, increase surveillance, and retrain biological warfare
specialists.
SEC. 1014. GRANT PROGRAM FOR STATE AND LOCAL DOMESTIC PREPAREDNESS
SUPPORT.
42 USC 3711.
(a) IN GENERAL.--The Office for State and Local
Domestic Preparedness Support of the Office of Justice Programs shall
make a grant to each State, which shall be used by the State, in
conjunction with units of local government, to enhance the capability of
State and local jurisdictions to prepare for and respond to terrorist
acts including events of terrorism involving weapons of mass destruction
and biological, nuclear, radiological, incendiary, chemical, and
explosive devices.
(b) USE OF GRANT AMOUNTS.--Grants under this section
may be used to purchase needed equipment and to provide training and
technical assistance to State and local first responders.
(c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.--
(1) IN GENERAL.--There is authorized to be
appropriated to carry out this section such sums as necessary for each
of fiscal years 2002 through 2007.
(2) LIMITATIONS.--Of the amount made available to
carry out this section in any fiscal year not more than 3 percent may be
used by the Attorney General for salaries and administrative expenses.
(3) MINIMUM AMOUNT.--Each State shall be allocated in
each fiscal year under this section not less than 0.75 percent of the
total amount appropriated in the fiscal year for grants pursuant to this
section, except that the United States Virgin Islands. America Samoa,
Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands each shall be allocated 0.25
percent.
SEC. 1016. CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURES PROTECTION.
Critical Infrastructure Protection Act of 2001.
42 USC 5195c.
(a) SHORT TITLE.--This section may be cited as the
"Critical Infrastructures Protection Act of 2001".
(b) FINDINGS.--Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The information revolution has transformed the
conduct of business and the operations of government as well as the
infrastructure relied upon for the defense and national security of the
United States.
(2) Private business, government, and the national
security apparatus increasingly depend on an interdependent network of
critical physical and information infrastructures, including
telecommunications, energy, financial services, water, and
transportation sectors.
(3) A continuous national effort is required to
ensure the reliable provision of cyber and physical infrastructure
services critical to maintaining the national defense, continuity of
government, economic prosperity, and quality of life in the United
States.
(4) This national effort requires extensive modeling
and analytic capabilities for purposes of evaluating appropriate
mechanisms to ensure the stability of these complex and interdependent
systems, and to underpin policy recommendations, so as to achieve the
continuous viability and adequate protection of the critical
infrastructure of the Nation.
(c) POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES.--It is the policy of
the United States--
(1) that any physical or virtual disruption of the
operation of the critical infrastructures of the United States be rare,
brief, geographically limited in effect, manageable, and minimally
detrimental to the economy, human and government services, and national
security of the United States;
(2) that actions necessary to achieve the policy
stated in paragraph (1) be carried out in a public-private partnership
involving corporate and non- governmental organizations; and
(3) to have in place a comprehensive and effective
program to ensure the continuity of essential Federal Government
functions under all circumstances.
(d) ESTABLISHMENT OF NATIONAL COMPETENCE FOR CRITICAL
INFRASTRUCTURE PROTECTION.--
(1) SUPPORT OF CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE PROTECTION AND
CONTINUITY BY NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE SIMULATION AND ANALYSIS
CENTER.--There shall be established the National Infrastructure
Simulation and Analysis Center (NISAC) to serve as a source of national
competence to address critical infrastructure protection and continuity
through support for activities related to counterterrorism, threat
assessment, and risk mitigation.
(2) PARTICULAR SUPPORT.--The support provided under
paragraph (1) shall include the following:
(A) Modeling, simulation, and analysis of the systems
comprising critical infrastructures, including cyber infrastructure,
telecommunications infrastructure, and physical infrastructure, in order
to enhance understanding of the large-scale complexity of such systems
and to facilitate modification of such systems to mitigate the threats
to such systems and to critical infrastructures generally.
(B) Acquisition from State and local governments and
the private sector of data necessary to create and maintain models of
such systems and of critical infrastructures generally.
(C) Utilization of modeling, simulation, and analysis
under subparagraph (A) to provide education and training to policymakers
on matters relating to--
(i) the analysis conducted under that subparagraph;
(ii) the implications of unintended or unintentional
disturbances to critical infrastructures; and
(iii) responses to incidents or crises involving
critical infrastructures, including the continuity of government and
private sector activities through and after such incidents or crises.
(D) Utilization of modeling, simulation, and analysis
under subparagraph (A) to provide recommendations to policymakers, and
to departments and agencies of the Federal Government and private sector
persons and entities upon request, regarding means of enhancing the
stability of, and preserving, critical infrastructures.
(3) RECIPIENT OF CERTAIN SUPPORT.--Modeling,
simulation, and analysis provided under this subsection shall be
provided, in particular, to relevant Federal, State, and local entities
responsible for critical infrastructure protection and policy.
(e) CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE DEFINED.--In this section, the term
"critical infrastructure" means systems and assets, whether
physical or virtual, so vital to the United States that the incapacity
or destruction of such systems and assets would have a debilitating
impact on security, national economic security, national public health
or safety, or any combination of those matters.
