38 U.S.C. § 7328 — Medical preparedness centers

(a) Establishment of Centers. (1) The Secretary^* must establish four medical emergency preparedness centers under this section. Each must be at a Department^* medical center and staffed by Department employees. (2) The Under Secretary for Health supervises their operation and must provide ongoing evaluation of the centers and their compliance with this section. (3) The Under Secretary must do this in consultation with the Assistant Secretary responsible for operations, preparedness, security, and law-enforcement functions.

(b) Mission. The centers must: (1) research and develop methods to detect, diagnose, prevent, and treat injuries, diseases, and illnesses arising from chemical, biological, radiological, incendiary, or other explosive weapons or devices that threaten public health and safety; (2) educate, train, and advise health-care professionals, including professionals outside the Veterans Health Administration, through the National Disaster Medical System under section 2811(b) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300hh–11(b)) or through interagency agreements made for that purpose; and (3) during a disaster or emergency described in section 1785(b) of this title, provide laboratory, epidemiological, medical, or other assistance the Secretary considers appropriate to Federal, State^*, and local health-care agencies and personnel involved in or responding to it.

(c) Selection of Centers. (1) The Secretary must select center sites competitively. The Secretary may not designate a site unless making the finding required by paragraph (2) about its proposal. To the maximum extent practicable, the Secretary must geographically disperse the sites throughout the United States. A center may be a consortium of efforts by more than one medical center. (2) On recommendations from the Under Secretary for Health and the Assistant Secretary responsible for operations, preparedness, security, and law enforcement, the Secretary must find that the proposing facility or facilities have developed, or may reasonably be expected to develop, each of these: (A) an arrangement with a qualifying medical school and qualifying school of public health, or a consortium of such schools, for physicians and other health workers to receive training through participating Department facilities in detecting, diagnosing, preventing, and treating conditions induced by chemical and biological substances, radiation, and incendiary or other explosive weapons or devices; (B) an arrangement with a graduate school specializing in epidemiology for students to train through participating Department facilities in the epidemiology of contagious and infectious diseases and chemical and radiation poisoning in an exposed population; (C) an arrangement for nursing, social-work, counseling, or allied-health personnel and students to train through the facilities to recognize and care for conditions associated with toxin exposure; and (D) the ability to attract scientists who have significantly contributed to innovative approaches to detecting, diagnosing, preventing, or treating such injuries, diseases, or illnesses. (3) For paragraph (2)(A), a qualifying medical school is an accredited medical school that provides education and training in toxicology and environmental health hazards and is affiliated with one or more participating Department medical centers. A qualifying school of public health is an accredited school of public health that provides that education and training and is so affiliated.

(d) Research Activities. Each center must research improved medical preparedness to protect the Nation from threats in its area of expertise. It may seek public and private research funds for this purpose.

(e) Dissemination of Research Products. (1) The Under Secretary for Health and the responsible Assistant Secretary must ensure that information from the centers' research, education and training, and clinical activities is made available as appropriate to health-care providers in the United States. It must be disseminated through publications, continuing medical and related education programs through regional medical education centers under subchapter VI of chapter 74 of this title, and other means. Those continuing medical-education programs must receive priority in funding awards. (2) The Secretary must ensure close coordination with other Federal departments and agencies and coordination and sharing of the centers' research products and other information with them.

(f) Coordination of Activities. The Secretary must ensure that each center works closely with the Department of Defense, the Department of Health and Human Services, and other government departments, agencies, and elements responsible for coordinating United States homeland-security plans. The Secretary must also take into account applicable recommendations of the Public Health Service Act working group on preventing, preparing for, and responding to bioterrorism and other public-health emergencies, or another joint interagency advisory group or committee designated by the President or the President's designee to coordinate Federal research on weapons of mass destruction.

(g) Assistance to Other Agencies. The Secretary may assist appropriate Federal, State, and local civil and criminal authorities, when they request it, with investigations, inquiries, and data analyses needed to protect public safety and prevent or eliminate biological, chemical, or radiological threats.

(h) Detail of Employees From Other Agencies. With the Secretary's approval, a center director may request the temporary assignment or detail, without reimbursement, of expert employees from other United States departments and agencies who would further the center's mission. An employee may be assigned or detailed on that nonreimbursable basis.

(i) Funding. (1) $10,000,000 is authorized to be appropriated for the centers for each fiscal year 2005 through 2007. (2) Besides amounts specifically appropriated for the centers under paragraph (1), the Under Secretary for Health must allocate from other funds appropriated for that fiscal year generally for the Department medical-services account and medical and prosthetics research account the amounts the Under Secretary considers necessary to carry out this section.