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Senator addressed legislative participants

June 25, 2007, Atlanta, GA...Sen. Richard T. Moore, D-Uxbridge, was among 25 state legislators invited to participate in the 2007 National Summit on Public Health Legal Preparedness in Atlanta, Ga., last week. The conference, which was sponsored by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Preparedness (CDC), included public health legal experts from federal and state governments and academic institutions.

Moore, who is Senate Chair of the Massachusetts Legislature’s Committee on Health Care Financing, is a former Associate Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency during the Clinton Administration. He is also co-chair of the National Conference of State Legislatures’ Task Force on Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness and primary sponsor of a bill in Massachusetts to reform the state’s public health emergency laws.

The National Summit was convened by the CDC to assess public health emergency preparedness, identify legal preparedness best practices, and create a shared agenda for action to strengthen legal preparedness for public health emergencies of all kinds, especially terrorist events such as the Anthrax attacks of 2001, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Participants from the CDC and more than 20 multidisciplinary partner organizations such as the National Conference of State Legislatures and the Council of State Governments were convened to ensure that the national action agenda reflects all perspectives that are key to public health emergency preparedness. In addition to Moore and his state legislative colleagues, attendees included senior policymakers and practitioners from state, community, and federal public health; emergency management and law enforcement organizations, members of the judiciary and researchers, as well as educators in law and public health.

Summit objectives included:

1. Define the concept and illustrate applications of legal preparedness for public health emergencies in terms of four core elements: laws and legal authorities; competencies; coordination; and information/best practices. Moore served on the coordination work group;

2. Describe the current national status of legal preparedness for public health emergencies;

3. Identify gaps and action steps to maximize state and local legal preparedness for public health emergencies; and

4. Actively participate in state and local agenda setting for legal preparedness for public health emergencies.

The work of the summit will be published in a special CDC report in the fall of this year to guide all agencies in advancing their readiness for a public health emergency such as a major epidemic or natural disaster that impacts the public health.

In a pre-conference session sponsored by the Council of State Governments, Moore joined Texas State Senator Letitia Van de Putte on a panel to discuss the role of state legislators in public health emergency preparedness. Moore explained to his colleagues that state legislatures play a key role in reforming state law to ensure protection of the public in a pandemic while respecting individual liberties, appropriating funds to prepare for and respond to a pandemic such as Avian Flu, and holding the executive branch accountable for effective planning and response to health disasters. Moore’s attendance was sponsored by the Council of State Governments and was not paid with state funds.

For more information on Sen. Moore’s work in the Senate, log onto his web site at www.senatormoore.com. 

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