This report formally transmits the briefing in response to section 247d-6c of title 42 of the United States Code. The statute required the Comptroller General to examine the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) support for the development and procurement of and authority for the emergency use of medical countermeasures to address chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats to public health, and provide the results to the congressional committees by July 21, 2009.

HHS determines priorities for medical countermeasure procurement based on those chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear agents that have been identified by the Department of Homeland Security as posing a material threat to the U.S. population that could affect national security.