Texas Responds: The Texas War Relief Package Page: 28
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Emergency Management 5 LEGISLATION REQUIRED
RECOMMENDATIONS
A. Texas should bolster anti-terrorism capabilities by developing regional epi-
demic response teams in eight of the TDH's regional offices.
B. Texas should increase state and local health department microbiological and
chemical laboratory capacity to detect and respond to bioterrorism and chem-
ical terrorism.
C. Texas should enhance infectious disease epidemiology and surveillance.
D. Texas should create an Office of the State Epidemiologist that would assist
local governments and hospitals with enhancing their current emergency
response plans to include bioterrorism preparedness.
E. Texas should expand the Health Alert Network program to more local health
departments and train local health department staff to recognize and
respond to bioterrorism.
COMMENTS:
- In Texas, the resources that are available for routine surveillance would be over-
whelmed and quickly exhausted in the event of a bioterrorist event.
- No one can predict how effectively the public health infrastructure in Texas or the
nation would respond to bioterrorist attacks.
- The resources needed to build effective epidemic response capabilities can also
serve other very useful long-term public health goals such as monitoring regular
biological threats like West Nile Fever and Bovine Spongiform Endephalopathy
(Mad Cow Disease)-all diseases that could significantly harm public health and
the economy.
- Texas needs more than a modest bioterrorism defense. Rapid response to epidemics
can save millions of dollars. As epidemics grow, the costs-both human and eco-
nomic-grow exponentially.
LEGISLATION REQUIRED
The Legislature and/or the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) would allocate funds as
described below.
FISCAL IMPACT
The estimated costto implement this proposal would be about $7.3 million in the first
year and $4.8 million thereafter. An additional 59 full-time employees would be
added to the department. Any available federal money should be sought for this
effort.
The LBB could use its budget execution authority to move $7.3 million from other
agencies to fund the recommended increases in public health spending.For more detail on the Texas War Relief Package go to http://www.window.state.tx.us/wrp/
28 TEXAS RESPONDS - Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts
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Texas. Comptroller's Office. Texas Responds: The Texas War Relief Package, text, November 2001; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth654370/m1/38/?q=%22~1%22~1&rotate=90: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.