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U.S. Response II: Homeland Security Should Not Include CDC, Ridge Says U.S. Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge has said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should not join the proposed homeland security department, Bio-Terrorism.Info reported today (see related GSN story, today). The CDC is expected to work with the proposed department to prevent future terrorist attacks using biological weapons, but the two should remain separate, Ridge said during testimony before two congressional committees last month. “There is a dual infrastructure here,” Ridge said last month before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. “That infrastructure should remain part of HHS [Health and Human Services Department]. The notion we would work through multiple agencies to establish protocol in advance of an incident is consistent with putting several agencies together, having a strategic focus.” Senator Max Cleland (D-Ga.) tried to obtain assurances from Ridge that the CDC would be have jurisdiction over any future bioterrorism attacks, according to Bio-Terrorism.Info. The CDC and the FBI came into conflict during last fall’s anthrax attacks because of conflicting rules, according to Cleland (see GSN, July 12). “There may be a point at which someone concludes that a threat to public safety is occurring and therefore automatically, by a stroke of a pen, CDC becomes the lead agency,” he said. “We don’t need competition. We need coordination, cooperation and communication” (Bio-Terrorism.Info, July 15).
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