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Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD-9
Subject: Defense of United States Agriculture and Food
January 30, 2004

Purpose

(1) This directive establishes a national policy to defend the agriculture
and food system against terrorist attacks, major disasters, and other
emergencies.

Background

(2) The United States agriculture and food systems are vulnerable to
disease, pest, or poisonous agents that occur naturally, are unintentionally
introduced, or are intentionally delivered by acts of terrorism. Americas
agriculture and food system is an extensive, open, interconnected, diverse,
and complex structure providing potential targets for terrorist attacks. We
should provide the best protection possible against a successful attack on
the United States agriculture and food system, which could have catastrophic
health and economic effects.

Definitions

(3) In this directive:

(a) The term critical infrastructure has the meaning given to that term in
section 1016(e) of the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 (42 U.S.C. 5195c(e)).

(b) The term key resources has the meaning given that term in section 2(9)
of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 101(9)).

(c) The term Federal departments and agencies means those executive
departments enumerated in 5 U.S.C. 101, and the Department of Homeland
Security; indepen-dent establishments as defined by 5 U.S.C. 104(1);
Government corporations as defined by 5 U.S.C. 103(1); and the United States
Postal Service.

(d) The terms State, and local government, when used in a geographical
sense, have the same meanings given to those terms in section 2 of the
Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 101).

(e) The term Sector-Specific Agency means a Federal department or agency
responsible for infrastructure protection activities in a designated
critical infrastructure sector or key resources category.

Policy

(4) It is the policy of the United States to protect the agriculture and
food system from terrorist attacks, major disasters, and other emergencies
by:

(a) identifying and prioritizing sector-critical infrastructure and key
resources for establishing protection requirements;

(b) developing awareness and early warning capabilities to recognize
threats;

(c) mitigating vulnerabilities at critical production and processing nodes;

(d) enhancing screening procedures for domestic and imported products; and

(e) enhancing response and recovery procedures.

(5) In implementing this directive, Federal departments and agencies will
ensure that homeland security programs do not diminish the overall economic
security of the United States.

Roles and Responsibilities

(6) As established in Homeland Security Presidential Directive-7 (HSPD-7),
the Secretary of Homeland Security is responsible for coordinating the
overall national effort to enhance the protection of the critical
infrastructure and key resources of the United States. The Secretary of
Homeland Security shall serve as the principal Federal official to lead,
integrate, and coordinate implementation of efforts among Federal
departments and agencies, State and local governments, and the private
sector to protect critical infrastructure and key resources. This directive
shall be implemented in a manner consistent with HSPD-7.

(7) The Secretaries of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, and the
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency will perform their
responsibilities as Sector-Specific Agencies as delineated in HSPD-7.

Awareness and Warning

(8) The Secretaries of the Interior, Agriculture, Health and Human Services,
the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the heads of
other appropriate Federal departments and agencies shall build upon and
expand current monitoring and surveillance programs to:

(a) develop robust, comprehensive, and fully coordinated surveillance and
monitoring systems, including international information, for animal disease,
plant disease, wildlife disease, food, public health, and water quality that
provides early detection and awareness of disease, pest, or poisonous
agents;

(b) develop systems that, as appropriate, track specific animals and plants,
as well as specific commodities and food; and

(c) develop nationwide laboratory networks for food, veterinary, plant
health, and water quality that integrate existing Federal and State
laboratory resources, are interconnected, and utilize standardized
diagnostic protocols and procedures.

(9) The Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the
Director of Central Intelligence, in coordination with the Secretaries of
Agriculture, Health and Human Services, and the Administrator of the
Environmental Protection Agency, shall develop and enhance intelligence
operations and analysis capabilities focusing on the agriculture, food, and
water sectors. These intelligence capabilities will include collection and
analysis of information concerning threats, delivery systems, and methods
that could be directed against these sectors.

(10) The Secretary of Homeland Security shall coordinate with the
Secretaries of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, and the Administrator
of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the heads of other appropriate
Federal departments and agencies to create a new biological threat awareness
capacity that will enhance detection and characterization of an attack. This
new capacity will build upon the improved and upgraded surveillance systems
described in paragraph 8 and integrate and analyze domestic and
international surveillance and monitoring data collected from human health,
animal health, plant health, food, and water quality systems. The Secretary
of Homeland Security will submit a report to me through the Homeland
Security Council within 90 days of the date of this directive on specific
options for establishing this capability, including recommendations for its
organizational location and structure.

Vulnerability Assessments

(11) The Secretaries of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, and Homeland
Security shall expand and continue vulnerability assessments of the
agriculture and food sectors. These vulnerability assessments should
identify requirements of the National Infrastructure Protection Plan
developed by the Secretary of Homeland Security, as appropriate, and shall
be updated every 2 years.

Mitigation Strategies

(12) The Secretary of Homeland Security and the Attorney General, working
with the Secretaries of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, the
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Director of
Central Intelligence, and the heads of other appropriate Federal departments
and agencies shall prioritize, develop, and implement, as appropriate,
mitigation strategies to protect vulnerable critical nodes of production or
processing from the introduction of diseases, pests, or poisonous agents.

(13) The Secretaries of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, and Homeland
Security shall build on existing efforts to expand development of common
screening and inspection procedures for agriculture and food items entering
the United States and to maximize effective domestic inspection activities
for food items within the United States.

Response Planning and Recovery

(14) The Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with the
Secretaries of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, the Attorney General,
and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, will 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. These activities will be integrated with other national
homeland security preparedness activities developed under HSPD-8 on National
Preparedness.

(15) The Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with the
Secretaries of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, the Attorney General,
and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, shall develop
a coordinated agriculture and food-specific standardized response plan that
will be integrated into the National Response Plan. This plan will ensure a
coordinated response to an agriculture or food incident and will delineate
the appropriate roles of Federal, State, local, and private sector partners,
and will address risk communication for the general public.

(16) The Secretaries of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, in
coordination with the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Administrator
of the Environmental Protection Agency, shall enhance recovery systems that
are able to stabilize agriculture production, the food supply, and the
economy, rapidly remove and effectively dispose of contaminated agriculture
and food products or infected plants and animals, and decontaminate
premises.

(17) The Secretary of Agriculture shall study and make recommendations to
the Homeland Security Council, within 120 days of the date of this
directive, for the use of existing, and the creation of new, financial risk
management tools encouraging self-protection for agriculture and food
enterprises vulnerable to losses due to terrorism.

18) The Secretary of Agriculture, in coordination with the Secretary of
Homeland Security, and in consultation with the Secretary of Health and
Human Services and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency,
shall work with State and local governments and the private sector to
develop:

(a) A National Veterinary Stockpile (NVS) containing sufficient amounts of
animal vaccine, antiviral, or therapeutic products to appropriately respond
to the most damaging animal diseases affecting human health and the economy
and that will be capable of deployment within 24 hours of an outbreak. The
NVS shall leverage where appropriate the mechanisms and infrastructure that
have been developed for the management, storage, and distribution of the
Strategic National Stockpile.

(b) A National Plant Disease Recovery System (NPDRS) capable of responding
to a high-consequence plant disease with pest control measures and the use
of resistant seed varieties within a single growing season to sustain a
reasonable level of production for economically important crops. The NPDRS
will utilize the genetic resources contained in the U.S. National Plant
Germplasm System, as well as the scientific capabilities of the
Federal-State-industry agricultural research and extension system. The NPDRS
shall include emergency planning for the use of resistant seed varieties and
pesticide control measures to prevent, slow, or stop the spread of a
high-consequence plant disease, such as wheat smut or soybean rust.

Outreach and Professional Development

(19) The Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with the
Secretaries of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, and the heads of
other appropriate Federal departments and agencies, shall work with
appropriate private sector entities to establish an effective information
sharing and analysis mechanism for agriculture and food.

(20) The Secretaries of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, in
consultation with the Secretaries of Homeland Security and Education, shall
support the development of and promote higher education programs for the
protection of animal, plant, and public health. To the extent permitted by
law and subject to availability of funds, the program will provide capacity
building grants to colleges and schools of veterinary medicine, public
health, and agriculture that design higher education training programs for
veterinarians in exotic animal diseases, epidemiology, and public health as
well as new programs in plant diagnosis and treatment.

(21) The Secretaries of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, in
consultation with the Secretaries of Homeland Security and Education, shall
support the development of and promote a higher education program to address
protection of the food supply. To the extent permitted by law and subject to
the availability of funds, the program will provide capacity-building grants
to universities for interdisciplinary degree programs that combine training
in food sciences, agriculture sciences, medicine, veterinary medicine,
epidemiology, microbiology, chemistry, engineering, and mathematics
(statistical modeling) to prepare food defense professionals.

(22) The Secretaries of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, and Homeland
Security shall establish opportunities for professional development and
specialized training in agriculture and food protection, such as
internships, fellowships, and other post-graduate opportunities that provide
for homeland security professional workforce needs.

Research and Development

(23) The Secretaries of Homeland Security, Agriculture, and Health and Human
Services, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the
heads of other appropriate Federal departments and agencies, in consultation
with the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, will
accelerate and expand development of current and new countermeasures against
the intentional introduction or natural occurrence of catastrophic animal,
plant, and zoonotic diseases. The Secretary of Homeland Security will
coordinate these activities. This effort will include countermeasure
research and development of new methods for detection, prevention
technologies, agent characterization, and dose response relationships for
high-consequence agents in the food and the water supply.

(24) The Secretaries of Agriculture and Homeland Security will develop a
plan to provide safe, secure, and state-of-the-art agriculture
biocontainment laboratories that research and develop diagnostic
capabilities for foreign animal and zoonotic diseases.

(25) The Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the
Secretaries of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, shall establish
university-based centers of excellence in agriculture and food security.

Budget

(26) For all future budgets, the Secretaries of Agriculture, Health and
Human Services, and Homeland Security shall submit to the Director of the
Office of Management and Budget, concurrent with their budget submissions,
an integrated budget plan for defense of the United States food system.

Implementation

(27) Nothing in this directive alters, or impedes the ability to carry out,
the authorities of the Federal departments and agencies to perform their
responsibilities under law and consistent with applicable legal authorities
and Presidential guidance.

(28) This directive is intended only to improve the internal management of
the executive branch of the Federal Government, and it is not intended to,
and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural,
enforceable at law or in equity, against the United States, its departments,
agencies, or other entities, its officers or employees, or any other person.

GEORGE W. BUSH

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