21 U.S.C. § 679c — Expansion of Food Safety Inspection Service activities

This section expands the government's food-safety inspection efforts and funds that expansion. (a) In general. This section lets the Secretary of Agriculture use existing authority to prioritize growing the Food Safety Inspection Service's capacity. The Secretary can pursue four goals. First, the Service can better inspect and ensure the safety of meat and poultry products. Second, it can improve inspection of international meat, poultry, and egg products, both at their origin and at U.S. ports of entry. Third, it can strengthen collaboration with other agencies in the Department of Agriculture, other federal agencies, states, and Indian tribes, by sharing information and technology. Fourth, it can otherwise expand its capacity to protect against the threat of bioterrorism. (b) Authorization of appropriations. Congress authorized $15,000,000 for fiscal year 2002 to carry out this section. It also authorized further sums for every later fiscal year, without setting a fixed dollar cap.

The record. According to the source credit, this section was enacted by Public Law 107–188, title III, § 332, on June 12, 2002, and appears at 116 Stat. 679. The credit line reflects a single enactment with no subsequent amendment to the text as codified, consistent with the low amendment count noted in the record. Historical context. Public Law 107–188 is the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002. This Act is generally understood to have been enacted in the aftermath of the September 2001 terrorist attacks and the anthrax mailings that followed shortly after, a period in which Congress undertook a broad review of the nation's vulnerability to biological threats, including threats to the food supply. The Act's title itself signals a concern with public health security and preparedness for bioterrorism, and Title III of the Act addressed protection of the food and drug supply specifically. Within that framework, a provision authorizing expansion of the Food Safety Inspection Service's capacity to inspect meat, poultry, and egg products, to coordinate with other federal, state, and tribal entities, and to guard against bioterrorism is consistent with the Act's commonly cited purpose of strengthening preparedness against deliberate contamination or attack. However, the record supplied does not include committee reports or other legislative history establishing the specific reasoning behind this section's inclusion, and no such specific intent should be assumed beyond this general historical understanding.