Following the horrific events of September 11, federal, state and local governments and private sector companies quickly focused on the need for products and services that would prevent future terrorist actions. Since then, the government and private sector have been working together to address a wide range of security concerns, including food and infrastructure safety, the crucial role that product liability plays in defending the country, and the need to create and support the evolving biodefense industry.
During this time, McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP has been at the forefront of the nation's post-9/11 anti-terror and safety efforts. Our Homeland Security practice uniquely combines many of our traditional areas of expertise, including Product Liability and Toxic Torts, Government Contracts law, Environmental law, Public Health and Pharmaceutical Compliance, and Food and Drug law. Through our legal expertise, our team of experienced attorneys and public policy advisers, and our location in the heart of the nation's capital, our firm can successfully guide organizations through the challenges and opportunities they face in the post-9/11 world.
Three areas stand out as major concerns in the Anti-Terror and Security arena:
Mitigating Liability in the Post-9/11 World: The SAFETY Act
Since 9/11, many companies have embarked on the development of homeland security products and services for sale to federal, state and local governments and commercial entities. During this time, we witnessed a convergence of capitalism and patriotism, where companies, big and small, hoped to provide anti-terror products and services to a marketplace in desperate need of them.
Typical anti-terror products and services include:
The most significant obstacle facing these companies was the potential for catastrophic damages arising from tort liability should these products or services allegedly fail to interdict the criminal, terrorist act on a given day.
Within the Homeland Security Act of 2002 is a significant provision known as the SAFETY Act (Support Anti-Terrorism by Fostering Effective Technology). The Act is acutely applicable to manufacturers and suppliers of anti-terror products and services. In short, the Act provides comprehensive liability protection for providers of homeland security technology to all segments of the marketplace - federal, state and local governments as well as commercial - thereby dramatically reducing the tort liability of manufacturers and suppliers should their products or services allegedly fail to interdict a terrorist act in these marketplaces. However, only those manufacturers and suppliers whose products/services are reviewed and approved by the Department will reap the benefits of such tort protections.
McKenna Long & Aldridge has played a key role in the development of the SAFETY Act, and specifically authored certain provisions of the Act that:
Agroterrorism and Food Safety
Since 9/11, government entities and private-sector organizations and companies have been taking steps to protect the public from threatened or actual terrorist attacks on the U.S. food supply. The Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 (the Bioterrorism Act) is the most prominent action taken to protect food supplies.
The interim final regulations for the Bioterrorism Act require domestic and foreign facilities that manufacture, process, pack, or hold food for human or animal consumption in the United States to register with the FDA by December 12, 2003. This ruling also requires importers, depending on the mode of transportation, to provide the FDA with details about a food shipment two to eight hours before arrival in the U.S.
McKenna Long & Aldridge's practitioners, along with scientific and regulatory consultants from our affiliate, Technology Sciences Group, Inc., monitor developments in agroterrorism efforts, such as the FDA requirements that are now necessary for the import of food items into the United States.
Combating Bioterrorism: Project BioShield
President Bush proposed Project BioShield in his January 2003 State of the Union Address to encourage companies to develop new bioterror countermeasures. The main provisions of the Bush Administration's proposal include:
McKenna Long & Aldridge has been working to ensure that the final language of the Act adopted by Congress will permit the maximum opportunity for private-sector involvement in creating and supporting the evolving Biodefense industry.