This website will be unavailable from Thursday, May 30, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. through Monday, June 3, 2024 at 7:00 a.m. due to data center maintenance.

                                                                                

79R2671 CLE-D

By:  Staples                                                    S.C.R. No. 2  



CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
	WHEREAS, Created in 1999 to help state and local 
jurisdictions prepare for a national emergency, the Strategic 
National Stockpile (SNS) is a repository of pharmaceuticals and 
medical supplies administered jointly by the U.S. Department of 
Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. 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 U.S. border 
state, including Texas, to request and deploy the SNS across the 
border to protect the citizens of the state; and
	WHEREAS,  Procedures for deploying SNS assets require the 
affected state governor's office to request deployment from the 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or DHS; the assets are 
transferred to state and local authorities once they arrive at the 
designated receiving and storage site in the affected state; and
	WHEREAS, Deployment, which may include a mass antibiotic 
dispensing operation, requires substantial state and local 
resources to receive, secure, and distribute SNS 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 DHS with 
defining the goals and performance requirements of the SNS 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 to protect U.S. border 
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.