[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 172 (Thursday, September 5, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Page 54652]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-21549]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES


Sole Source Cooperative Agreement Award to the Association for 
State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO)

AGENCY: Office of Policy and Planning, Assistant Secretary for 
Preparedness and Response (ASPR), Department of Health and Human 
Services (HHS).

ACTION: Notification of a Sole Source Cooperative Agreement Award to 
the Association for State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) for 
a grant titled: ``Technical Assistance to Obtain State and Territorial 
Health Department Input for National Health Security-related 
Activities''.

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    Statutory Authority: Public Health Service Act, Section 1703(a), 42 
U.S.C. Section 300u-2(a).
    Estimated Amount of Award: $1,500,000 USD.
    Project Period: September 30, 2013 to September 29, 2016.
SUMMARY: ASPR requires collaboration with state and territorial health 
departments and officials to ensure that state and local governments, 
communities, private sector entities, non-governmental organizations, 
academia, and individuals can optimally coordinate their respective 
national health security roles and responsibilities to achieve 
community health resilience and strengthen health care, public health, 
and emergency management systems. This project aims to improve 
collaboration between ASPR and the state health departments (SHDs) to 
enhance national health security, foster community health resilience, 
and strengthen health care, public health, and emergency management 
systems. One of the overarching goals of both the National Health 
Security Strategy (2009) and the ASPR Strategic Plan 2011-2015 is to 
build community health resilience. ASPR seeks to partner with SHDs and 
territorial health officials, which play a critical role in building 
community health resilience by employing and evaluating public health 
strategies such as preparing local communities to withstand and recover 
from public health emergencies and disasters, and engaging health care 
organizations to build healthcare coalitions. The project will foster 
better approaches for building community health resilience.
    SHDs and territorial health officials are intimately familiar with 
the communities and populations that they serve and are an essential 
partner in carrying out the mission of ASPR. ASPR seeks to engage SHDs 
and health officials as well as other appropriate stakeholders in bi-
directional communications to evaluate the effectiveness of, and ensure 
that, ASPR's strategies, policies, and programmatic activities are 
informed by and support the needs of states, territories, and local 
communities. The project will foster collaboration with state health 
officials to achieve, for example, national health security and 
strengthen emergency preparedness, response, and recovery systems and 
capabilities, and build well-functioning healthcare coalitions, among 
other activities.
    ASPR seeks to partner with SHDs and territorial health officials 
and local communities which frequently prepare for, respond to, and 
recover from emergency incidents and to identify valuable lessons 
learned and promising practices to collect and share these practices 
with other SHDs and communities. This project will capture lessons and 
promising practices and share them more widely.
    Justification: The Association for State and Territorial Health 
Officials (ASTHO) is the only national nonprofit membership 
organization that includes membership representation from every state 
and local public health agency in the United States (U.S.), the U.S. 
Territories, the District of Columbia, and over 100,000 public health 
professionals employed by these agencies. ASTHO members, the chief 
health officials of these jurisdictions, formulate and influence sound 
public health policy and ensure excellence in state-based public health 
practice. The ASTHO organization has the unique ability to represent 
the perspectives of all the state and territorial health officials 
across the nation.
    Additional Information: The agency program contact is Lisa 
Kaplowitz, who can be contacted by phone at (202) 202-2882 or via email 
at [email protected].

    Dated: August 28, 2013.
Nicole Lurie,
Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response.
[FR Doc. 2013-21549 Filed 9-4-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4150-37-P