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.”

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U.S. Response II: Weldon Urges Domestic Responders to Get Political

By David Ruppe

Global Security Newswire

U.S. local and state responders to terrorist attacks with weapons of mass destruction need to assert themselves more intensely in the nation’s political process, U.S. Representative Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), said yesterday.

“What you have to now do is respectfully demand that government respond, that we give you the tools and resources that you may need to deal with the threats that you may face in your states, counties, cities and towns,” he told some 1,600 firefighters, emergency medical personnel and other responders from around the country.  They were gathered for a chemical emergency responder conference in Baltimore run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“We’ve got a lot of pressures in Washington, in Baltimore, Harrisburg, and Trenton, all the other state capitals. You have to make the process work for you,” he said.

Weldon urged the responders to establish personal contact with respective congressional staffers handling homeland defense issues, informing them about what is needed. He advocated greater local responder access to applicable new technologies developed for the military and increased radio frequency spectrum space to encourage better communication after an incident.

He also compared some $30 million in federal dollars last year spent on domestic responders to $317 billion in military spending this year and $4 billion spent on law enforcement, both of which he supported.

“To protect America, it’s going to cost money,” said Weldon, who is himself a former firefighter and fire chief.

The USA Patriot Act, signed into law in October, appropriated $25 million each year through 2007 for responder equipment and training (see GSN, Oct. 26) and the House version of the fiscal 2002 defense appropriations bill has an increase in funding of $1 billion for a grant program for firefighters and other first responders.

“The money should not go to federal agencies to build bigger bureaucracies, because the first responder on any incident in America … is not going to be [the Federal Emergency Management Agency], the National Guard, … EPA,” Weldon said.  “The first responder is always going to be the fireman, [the emergency medical technician], the law enforcement person on that first-in vehicle.

“If you don’t hold [lawmakers] accountable, then don’t expect them to respond,” he said.

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International Response:  U.S. and Allies Search Ships

Forces on U.S., British, Australian, German and French ships have started searching every merchant ship leaving Pakistan as well as ships in some other waters in a hunt for materials that terrorists could smuggle to develop chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, according to the Singapore Business Times.  The countries have also searched ships in a hunt for Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders.

In addition, the U.S. Navy has been searching for 23 merchant vessels that U.S. and Norwegian intelligence agencies have identified as owned or controlled by al-Qaeda (Donald Urquhart, Singapore Business Times, Dec. 10).

Thirty to 40 seacraft, ranging from ships to small boats, are challenged every day, according to the Washington Post.   Many fewer are searched and so far none has been detained, according to the Post.

Last Thursday, for example, U.S. forces stopped and boarded a large container ship they suspected of carrying senior al-Qaeda leaders.   U.S. Marines and Navy special forces searched dozens of containers, but “didn’t find anything,” said a Navy official (Vogel/Vick, Washington Post, Dec. 11).

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U.S. Response:  Senate Passes Anti-Terrorism Package

The U.S. Senate Saturday passed a $318 billion defense bill that includes a $20 billion package for homeland defense.  The vote followed intense debate over a Democratic proposal to add $15 billion to the Bush administration’s request (see GSN, Dec. 6) for a homeland defense package in response to the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

Bush had threatened to veto any spending over $20 billion, and Republican senators Friday gained 50 votes in a procedure to derail the defense bill—nine more votes than necessary (see GSN, Dec. 7).  Democrats eventually agreed to a plan within Bush’s limits that shifted $6 billion from programs the president wanted to programs to enhance homeland security and aid recovery in New York and Washington.  The package also included $8.5 billion to combat bioterrorism and enhance other homeland defense programs, which was $4.1 billion more than Bush requested.

Congress already had approved $40 billion in defense funds three days after the Sept. 11 attacks, and Bush said he would consider approving more funds early next year.

“We have ensured the funding necessary to recover from the Sept. 11 attacks and to protect and defend our homeland,” Bush said after the Senate passed the bill.

Some Democrats remained critical of the funding levels, however.  “We do not seem to be able to pull together in this town for America even in this time when the people of the United States are united,” said Senator Robert Byrd (D-W.V.) (Alan Fram, Associated Press/Yahoo.com, Dec. 9).

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