|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
U.S. Response I: House Prepares Major Bioterrorism Bill By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire U.S. Representatives Billy Tauzin (R-La.) and John Dingell (D-Mich.) are planning to introduce a major bioterrorism bill that could be considered by the U.S. House of Representatives as soon this week. A press conference to announce the bill was scheduled for today. The bipartisan Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Response Act of 2001, said to be the product of weeks of intense negotiations, is intended to strengthen U.S. public infrastructure for responding to a biological weapons attack at the federal, state and local levels. “This sweeping package includes everything from beefed-up food safety regulations (see GSN, Dec. 6) to tightened controls on deadly biological agents,” said House Commerce Committee Chairman Tauzin, announcing a bipartisan agreement on the bill last week. The bill specifically authorizes more than $1 billion in grants to state and local governments and hundreds of millions to federal agencies (see GSN, Dec. 7). Senate Bill Passed Last Week The bioterrorism bill resembles a Senate appropriations measure passed last week as part of the fiscal 2002 defense appropriations bill, though many of the funding levels differ significantly. The Senate bill, which is expected to go to a House-Senate Conference Committee in the next two weeks, similarly provides $1 billion for national health care infrastructure and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention improvements. Notably, it provides significantly less funding to upgrade CDC research capabilities and to improve the nation's pharmaceutical stockpile, while allowing millions of dollars more to improve FDA and USDA food inspections. The Tauzin-Dingle bill ultimately could prove somewhat irrelevant, says Bill Burton, spokesman for Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) who helped design the bill as chairman of the Senate Health Appropriations Subcommittee. “The authorization process right now is a helpful guide, but it’s not exactly a necessary part of the process right now. We’re just at the point where we need to appropriate the funds and make it happen.”
| ||||||||||
Back to top
