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U.S. Response: Bush Requests Large Biodefense Budget Increase U.S. President George W. Bush is requesting $5.9 billion for bioterrorism defense in his proposed fiscal 2003 budget (see GSN, Jan. 22), according to the New York Times. The funding would be several times more than previous spending to counter a biological attack. Bush has requested $11 billion over two years, including the fiscal 2003 proposal, the $1.4 billion Congress approved last year and an already approved $3.7 billion supplemental request for bioterrorism defense (see GSN, Jan. 14). The proposed 2003 funds would include: * $1.75 billion for the National Institutes of Health; * $600 million for the Defense Department, including $420 million for efforts to improve detection systems; Bush proposes to spend the rest on research, such as antidotes (see GSN, Jan. 24); * $10 million to create a team of U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientists to work with foreign scientists and to improve methods for sharing information about outbreaks and new drugs; * $650 million for the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile, including more “push-packs,” packages of drugs and medical supplies that authorities can rush to a site anywhere in the country to respond to an attack or epidemic (see GSN, Jan. 29); * $20 million for the CDC’s Epidemiological Intelligence Service, an early-warning system against biological warfare; and * $1.6 billion for state and local health systems (see GSN, Feb. 1). National Institutes of Health “The $1.75 billion request for the National Institutes of Health alone is the biggest single-year request for any discipline or institute in the history of the NIH,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at NIH. “This is the first time that an extraordinary amount of money is being increased expressly for bioterrorism rather than for the general enhancement of capabilities.” Fauci said he would spend $441 million on basic research, $592 million on drug and vaccine research, $194 million on testing new drugs and $522 million on new research laboratories. Proposal Reflects New Threat Assessments and Homeland Defense Priorities Bush’s proposed increase in biological defense funding reflects a reevaluation of security threats since Sept. 11 and the anthrax attacks (see related GSN story, today), according to the Times. “The anthrax letters showed us that even a relatively unsophisticated, small-scale attack can cause enormous disruption since our toolbox for countering such strikes is fairly bare,” said a senior Bush administration official. “Compared to the full destructive potential of biological warfare, the anthrax letters were a slingshot” (Judith Miller, New York Times, Feb. 4).
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