Which act authorizes the Secretary to regulate to prevent the spread of communicable disease between states?

• A. Homeland Security Act
• B. Public Health Service Act
• C. National Defense Act
• D. Food Safety Act

Answer: (B)

Federal authority to regulate the interstate spread of communicable diseases comes from the Public Health Service Act. This act authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services to enact and enforce regulations to prevent the introduction, transmission, and spread of communicable diseases between states (and from foreign countries into the United States). The relevant provision empowers quarantine, isolation, and other public health measures to stop cross‑state transmission. Other listed acts do not grant this specific interstate disease-control authority, so they do not provide the legal basis for regulating spread between states in the way the Public Health Service Act does.