What This Bill Does
This bill amends the Animal Health Protection Act to allow the Secretary of Agriculture to negotiate agreements with countries that buy American animal products. The goal is to prevent the spread of animal diseases across borders. The bill also requires notifications when language is removed from the Food Safety and Inspection Service's export library.
Who It Affects
The Secretary of Agriculture and their agencies (the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the Under Secretary of Agriculture for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, and the Food Safety and Inspection Service) are directly responsible for carrying out this bill's requirements. State departments of agriculture and state animal disease agencies will receive notifications about export library changes. Countries that import American animal products are affected by the new negotiation authority.
Key Provisions
• The Secretary of Agriculture can negotiate regionalization agreements (agreements about disease outbreaks in specific areas) with countries that buy American animals and animal products before disease outbreaks happen (Sec. 2(a)).
• These negotiations should consider accepted global research advances when practicable (Sec. 2(a)).
• The Food Safety and Inspection Service must notify each state agriculture department, lead state animal disease agency, and any group that requested certain export language within 3 days if that language is removed from the export library (Sec. 3).
What Changes
The Secretary gains new authority to negotiate disease prevention agreements with export market countries before outbreaks occur. Previously, no such preemptive negotiation power was explicitly authorized. Additionally, the Food Safety and Inspection Service must now provide quick notifications to states when export library language is removed.
Important Definitions
Regionalization: agreements about containing or managing outbreaks of known animal diseases in specific geographic areas.
II
118TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
S. 901
To amend the Animal Health Protection Act to improve the prevention of
the spread of animal diseases, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH 21, 2023
Mr. BRAUN (for himself, Ms. SMITH, Mr. COONS, and Mr. WICKER) intro-
duced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Com-
mittee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
A BILL
To amend the Animal Health Protection Act to improve
the prevention of the spread of animal diseases, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Safe American Food
4
Exports Act of 2023’’ or the ‘‘SAFE Act of 2023’’.
5
SEC. 2. ENGAGEMENT WITH KEY EXPORT MARKETS.
6
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 10405 of the Animal
7
Health Protection Act (7 U.S.C. 8304) is amended—
8
VerDate Sep 11 2014
01:00 Mar 31, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00001
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\S901.IS
S901
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
2
•S 901 IS
(1) by redesignating subsection (d) as sub-
1
section (e); and
2
(2) by inserting after subsection (c) the fol-
3
lowing:
4
‘‘(d) ENGAGEMENT WITH KEY EXPORT MARKETS.—
5
‘‘(1) IN
GENERAL.—The Secretary, acting
6
through the Administrator of the Animal and Plant
7
Health Inspection Service and the Under Secretary
8
of Agriculture for Trade and Foreign Agricultural
9
Affairs, in coordination with the Administrator of
10
the Food Safety and Inspection Service, may pre-
11
emptively negotiate, to the extent practicable, re-
12
gionalization agreements regarding outbreaks of
13
known animal disease threats with the governments
14
of countries with key export markets for any animal,
15
article, or associated means of conveyance from the
16
United States.
17
‘‘(2) RESEARCH.—A negotiation carried out
18
under paragraph (1) is encouraged to take into ac-
19
count accepted global research advances.’’.
20
(b) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-
21
tion—
22
(1) limits the ability of the Secretary of Agri-
23
culture to negotiate trade agreements; or
24
VerDate Sep 11 2014
01:00 Mar 31, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00002
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\S901.IS
S901
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
3
•S 901 IS
(2) requires the Secretary of Agriculture to con-
1
dition other trade agreements on the inclusion of
2
language relating to regionalization as described in
3
subsection (d)(1) of section 10405 of the Animal
4
Health Protection Act (7 U.S.C. 3804).
5
SEC. 3. EXPORT LIBRARY ADMINISTRATION.
6
The Secretary of Agriculture shall promulgate a reg-
7
ulation to require that, in the case of any language re-
8
moved from the Import and Export Library of the Food
9
Safety and Inspection Service, the Administrator of the
10
Food Safety and Inspection Service shall directly notify
11
each State department of agriculture, each lead State
12
agency for animal disease, and any entity that petitioned
13
for the inclusion of that language of such removal not later
14
than 3 days after such removal.
15
Æ
VerDate Sep 11 2014
01:00 Mar 31, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00003
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6301
E:\BILLS\S901.IS
S901
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS