Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee yesterday approved a bill intended to improve security at the nation's biological research facilities (see GSN, Oct. 29).

One week after postponing a decision in order to give the Obama administration more time to weigh in on the legislation, the panel voted 8-1 in favor of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Prevention and Preparedness Act of 2009.

"This is an urgently needed bill, and I am pleased the committee has moved it forward," Chairman Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) said in a statement.

It was unclear when the full Senate would take up the legislation.

The measure -- sponsored by Lieberman and committee ranking member Susan Collins (R-Maine) -- would require the Homeland Security Department to prepare security regulations for laboratories.

It would also divide the government's list of select agents and toxins into three tiers, subjecting facilities that handle the eight to 10 most harmful pathogens to the highest security. Homeland Security would be in charge of regulating those laboratories while the Health and Human Services Department would oversee sites in the remaining two tiers.

Collins has estimated the measure could impact as many as 400 facilities and 15,000 individuals authorized to work with deadly pathogens.

In addition, the legislation would mandate establishment of a national strategy for dispensing medical countermeasures to the public before and after a disease-based attack.

The bill is derived from the recommendations of the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism. Last year, that congressionally mandated panel stated that an attack involving a weapon of mass destruction is likely to occur somewhere in the world by 2013 unless significant security improvements are made. The commission concluded a biological attack was a greater likelihood than a nuclear strike because of the worldwide prevalence of deadly pathogens and materials.

In its report to Congress last December, the group urged the government to tighten oversight of facilities that handle such materials.

"Security gaps at laboratories that store and work with dangerous pathogens, both in the United States and around the world, are worrisome because of continued interest in biological weapons," the commission's report said.

At the urging of committee member Carl Levin (D-Mich.) Lieberman and Collins last week wrote to John Brennan, President Barack Obama's assistant for homeland security and counterterrorism, to reiterate their request for the administration's official position on the bill.

On Monday, National Security Council representatives submitted "preliminary official reviews" of the legislation that included a number of suggested changes but were "generally positive," according to Lieberman. However, the administration has not yet formulated an official stance on the laboratory security proposals.

Lieberman said that the Homeland Security Department submitted its own assessments on the legislation that were approved by Secretary Janet Napolitano. The agency said it has the expertise to "address certain security shortfalls in the current regulatory regime" such as vetting personnel and sharing information with state and local law enforcement officials. Those activities "are not essential to the core missions of HHS and [the Agriculture Department]," according to DHS comments read by Lieberman at the hearing.

As was the case last week, Levin objected to the bill in its present form, even with additional input from the administration.

He urged the panel to call additional hearings with the WMD commission to address why its experts recommended that Health and Human Services -- rather than Homeland Security -- lead the overhaul of laboratory security.

Levin said the WMD commission's suggestion was reiterated in the interim report it released last month (see GSN, Oct. 22). Proceeding with the bill would go "right smack in the teeth" of the commission's recommendations, he said.

Lieberman said members of the commission had appeared before the committee in September and testified their position that Health and Human Services be the lead agency was "in evolution."

However, commission co-heads Bob Graham and Jim Talent today repeated their claim that Health and Human Services take the lead in streamlining the inspection and oversight of laboratories that conduct research using select agents.

"Since the release of the report, we have conducted additional research on this important question and are even more certain that consolidation of regulatory responsibilities under the HHS secretary is the correct course of action," the former senators said in a statement to Global Security Newswire. "We want to be unambiguous on this point."

Levin noted that the American Society for Microbiology, the American Biological Safety Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science have all voiced concerns about the bill, including that the risk-based tier system could prove confusing and cumbersome for laboratories and could potentially impede research efforts.

The Michigan lawmaker unsuccessfully suggested having representatives from those organizations appear before the committee before the bill was passed on to the full Senate.

Collins said the existing system for security at the nation's laboratories was flawed and that the committee had an "obligation to act."

"The WMD commission has warned us of the consequences of not acting," she said in a statement after the vote. "We must move swiftly to strengthen and improve our nation's biological defenses and security systems."