Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. House Homeland Security Committee yesterday overwhelmingly approved legislation intended to bolster security measures at the country's biological research laboratories and strengthen federal prevention and response efforts for a potential WMD attack (see GSN, June 11).

Less than two weeks after being introduced by Representative Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) and the panel's ranking member Peter King (R-N.Y.), the committee voted 26-0 in favor of the WMD Prevention and Preparedness Act of 2010. Not all members of the committee were present.

"All the evidence we have points to the fact that weapons of mass destruction pose a clear and present danger to our nation and the world at large," Pascrell said before the start of the mark-up session. The process led to one substantive change in the bill as lawmakers adopted an amendment offered by committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.).

The measure has not been scheduled for a vote by the full House, according to a committee spokesman.

The 95-page bill would require the homeland security secretary to hold a "negotiated rulemaking committee" with other government agencies to develop enhanced regulations for biological research facilities and personnel. That body would in turn create a tier of disease materials deemed to be the most serious threats to the United States, labeling them "Tier 1 Material Threat Agents."

The Agriculture and Health and Human Services departments would then conduct inspections of those laboratories to enforce the rules written by the negotiating committee and retain their current oversight roles. Agriculture and HHS officials also would be assigned to establish training programs for employees at those sites.

Pascrell and King also addressed the broader danger posed by biological, chemical, nuclear and radiological weapons, calling for the national intelligence director to receive new authority to coordinate with other federal offices to develop and implement strategies for countering WMD threats. The Health and Human Services Department would also be required to develop and implement a national strategy for distributing medical countermeasures in the event of a unconventional weapons event.

The bill is derived from recommendations made last year by the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism. That congressionally mandated panel concluded that an attack involving a weapon of mass destruction is likely to occur somewhere in the world by the end of 2013 unless significant security improvements are made.

It also stated that there was a greater likelihood of a biological attack than a nuclear strike because of the worldwide prevalence of deadly pathogens and other disease materials.

The commission in January gave the Obama administration an "F" in a final "report card" for failure to develop a comprehensive strategy against a disease-based attack (see GSN, Jan. 26).

Former Senators Bob Graham (D-Fla.) and Jim Talent (R-Mo.), the panel's co-chairmen, endorsed the House legislation when it was introduced June 10.

Yesterday, Thompson said passage of the WMD bill is a "major step forward against this unconventional, emerging [bioterrorism] threat."

The House bill somewhat mirrors legislation passed by the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee last November (see GSN, Nov. 5, 2009).

That bill -- sponsored by panel Chairman Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and ranking member Susan Collins (R-Maine) -- would require the Homeland Security Department to prepare security regulations for select research sites. It would also separate the government's directory of select agents and toxins into three tiers based on the threat they pose to the populace.

Today there are 82 "select agents" -- pathogens and biological toxins, such as anthrax, declared to pose a severe threat to human or animal health by the Health and Human Services and Agriculture departments.

The Senate legislation calls for laboratories that handle the eight to 10 most dangerous materials to be placed in the first tier and receive the strictest safety measures, under the watch of the Homeland Security Department. The Health and Human Services Department would oversee facilities listed in the remaining two tiers.

It remains unclear when the Lieberman-Collins bill would reach the full Senate for a vote.

King said yesterday that the two measures are similar enough that a successful conference resolution is likely once both houses pass their respective bills, he added.

Members of the House committee also adopted an amendment introduced by Thompson that would make dozens of technical fixes to the bill's language as well as one substantive policy change.

As originally written, the bill authorized the repository within the Homeland Security Department's National Bioforensic Analysis Center to work toward improving biological threat characterization and attribution. The agency, housed with the DHS National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center, is the department's lead facility for studying and interpreting materials recovered following a biological attack.

The Mississippi lawmaker said that while he supported the move, he was concerned about the security implications of housing all known biological agents, strains and toxins in a centralized location, as was proposed in the legislation.

Under his amendment, laboratories would instead transmit "analytical" information on their samples and inventory, rather than splice the materials and send actual disease agents to the agency.

"I'm confident that the information provided by participating laboratories will allow the center to be able to characterize samples in a timely and effective manner," Thompson said.

Both Pascrell and King argued for quick passage of the bill.

"My concern is that ... this legislation could be stuck in the same jurisdictional turf battles we have been fighting" since Congress created the Homeland Security Department and the legislative panels to oversee that agency in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Pascrell said before the vote.

"If we simply shelve this legislation because of jurisdictional turf battles then we prove the idea that we are no safer today than we were on Sept. 10, 2001," he said.

The measure has already been referred to five other House panels, according to King. They include: Energy and Commerce, Agriculture, Transportation and Infrastructure, Foreign Affairs and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

"It's just a glaring example of how the issue of homeland security is being bogged down in congressional bureaucracy," the New York lawmaker said.