“Laboratories are usually one of the first players in emergency response,” said DeBoy. “We can’t afford to always wait for a formal declaration of emergency. If our building’s blown up or contaminated, is the governor even going to declare a complete state of emergency? There’s nothing to do in that situation anyway other than to rely on sister public health laboratories.”
Such concerns about continuity of operations led DeBoy to push for passage of a groundbreaking laboratory mutual aid bill that would permit Maryland laboratorians to continue working in an out-of-state laboratory during a crisis—even absent an official state-of-emergency declaration—with all the pay and benefits that accrue to a state employee working in Maryland. More generally, the law would allow the state public health laboratory to enter into a mutual aid agreement with a public health laboratory operated by a state or local government outside of Maryland and assure that Maryland would not file legal claims against the out-of-state laboratory related to the performance of routine work.
Despite the commonsense utility of the legislation, its passage by the Maryland legislature was far from certain in early 2007. “A lot of preconceived legal roadblocks had to be dismantled,” said DeBoy.
At DeBoy’s request, Peter Kyriacopoulos, APHL’s director of public policy, testified before the Maryland House Health and Government Operations Committee in February 2007. In his testimony, Kyriacopoulos cited recent public health emergencies necessitating out-of-state laboratory support, a similar legislative initiative underway in Virginia and the critical need for public health testing to “continue seamlessly regardless of external events that affect the laboratories where it occurs.”
DeBoy said, “The fact that APHL sent someone in person to testify was more important that having any one state lab director there. Not only is APHL a credible organization, but it serves as a broader resource, because staff can explain what’s being done in other parts of the country to support what we’re trying to do here. When people who are not part of state government, and who are perceived as not having any vested interest in the legislation, echo what state employees say, it’s given more credence.”
The legislation was signed into law by Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley on April 10, 2007.
Said DeBoy, “There’s no question that APHL support helped pass this bill.”