Senate Approves Legislation To Reauthorize Bioterrorism Preparedness Law

Main Category: Bio-terrorism / Terrorism
Article Date: 08 Dec 2006 - 5:00 PDT

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The Senate on Tuesday passed legislation (S 3678) that would reauthorize a law designed to bolster vaccine production and prepare for other biological threats, CQ Today reports (Berger/Wayne, CQ Today 11/5). The bill, sponsored by Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), would reauthorize through 2011 a law related to bioterrorism and disease outbreak preparedness. The legislation would:

• Make HHS the lead agency in public health and medical response to bioterrorist attacks and disease outbreaks;
  
  
• Make the National Disaster Medical System, currently part of the Department of Homeland Security, part of HHS;
  
  
• Require the HHS secretary to prepare and implement a national preparedness and response strategy and to begin to submit the strategy to Congress in 2009, followed by revisions every four years; and
  
  
• Award $1 billion in federal grants annually to states to establish public health and medical preparedness strategies.

Included in the measure is a separate bill (S 1873), a version of which the House passed by voice vote on Sept. 26, that would establish the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. BARDA would coordinate federal efforts to produce countermeasures against biological weapons and illnesses such as pandemic flu (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 11/13). A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said last week that the specifics of the BARDA component of the legislation had been discussed with House leaders in hope that the House could quickly pass the legislation this week. However, it is "not clear when or whether the House will take it up," CQ Today reports. A former congressional aide familiar with the legislation said, "The longer Congress waits, the less interested industry will be" (Berger/Wayne, CQ Today, 12/5).

Thompson Opinion Piece
"More than five years after Sept. 11, 2001, no state is adequately prepared for a potential mass-casualty disaster caused by a terrorist attack, pandemic or natural disaster," former HHS secretary Tommy Thompson writes in an opinion piece in The Hill. Thompson asks, "How best can the federal government help prepare 50 states with diverse assets, risks and needs for an unknown mass-casualty emergency?" He continues, "Congress can ... fund a hospital preparedness project that could benefit every state" -- an initiative known as ER One, the Washington Hospital Center's "proposed state-of-the-art emergency facility." Thompson writes that ER One "is arguably one of the smartest investments that Congress could make." According to Thompson, ER One "will serve as an education center and working research laboratory for testing and publishing new approaches to managing risks." In addition, "ER One would meet myriad challenges posed by a mass-casualty medical emergency in the nation's capital," he says. Thompson states, "The choice is clear: Congress can give states the ER One tools and training they need to meet the challenges of a dangerous world -- or it can prepare to fail by failing to prepare" (Thompson, The Hill, 12/6).

"Reprinted with permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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