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By: Staples S.C.R. No. 2
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, Created in 1999 to help state and local
jurisdictions prepare for a national emergency, the Strategic
National Stockpile is a repository of pharmaceuticals and medical
supplies administered jointly by the United States Department of
Homeland Security and United States Department of Health and Human
Services; and
WHEREAS, Currently, if an act of bioterrorism occurs within
Mexico near the United States border, it is up to each United States
border state, including Texas, to request and deploy the Strategic
National Stockpile across the border to protect the citizens of the
state; and
WHEREAS, Procedures for deploying Strategic National
Stockpile assets require the affected state governor's office to
request deployment from the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention or the Department of Homeland Security; although the
assets are transferred to state and local authorities once they
arrive at the designated receiving and storage site in the affected
state, the stockpile materials remain a federal asset; and
WHEREAS, Deployment, which may include a mass antibiotic
dispensing operation, requires substantial state and local
resources to receive, secure, and distribute Strategic National
Stockpile assets; staging and dispensing the assets in another
country requires a coordinated, comprehensive approach that is best
addressed by the federal government; and
WHEREAS, The Homeland Security Act of 2002 charged the United
States Department of Homeland Security with defining the goals and
performance requirements of the Strategic National Stockpile
program as well as managing the actual deployment of assets;
critical to the success of this initiative is ensuring capacity at
the federal level to respond to binational public health
emergencies; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the 79th Legislature of the State of Texas
hereby respectfully request the Congress of the United States to
enact legislation to provide for federal deployment of the
Strategic National Stockpile within Mexico, provided that the
Mexican government approves said request pursuant to treaties and
other agreements with the United States; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of the
senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the
Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this
resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a
memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.