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Bipartisan Bioterror Bill Unveiled in House
December 6, 2001 3:28 pm EST
By Joanne Kenen
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Spurred into action by the Sept. 11 attacks and a series of deadly anthrax letters, U.S. House members on Thursday unveiled a bipartisan bill calling for roughly $3 billion to improve bioterrorism preparedness and said the full House could vote as soon as next week.
"In a post-Sept. 11 world, we are more acutely aware of our nation's vulnerability to bioterrorist attack than ever before," said Louisiana Republican Rep. Billy Tauzin, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, who released an outline of the bill along with the committee's top Democrat, Rep. John Dingell of Michigan.
Sens. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican, have introduced similar though not identical legislation in the Senate.
Despite ongoing partisan conflict about how to fund all the post-Sept. 11 emergency needs, there is broad bipartisan support in both the House and Senate for significant investment in bioterror preparedness.
The Bush administration has asked for $1.5 billion, with most of that going to increase national stockpiles of antibiotics and vaccines, including an accelerated and expanded plan to have enough smallpox vaccine to immunize every American in a crisis.
The Tauzin-Dingell bill similarly gives about $1 billion for that national stockpile but it calls for another $1 billion for states, local governments, and other health-care providers to improve their ability to respond. That also includes money to develop new treatments and vaccines.
It also gives the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention $450 million, which has been at the heart of the response to the recent anthrax attack through the mail, to expand its bioterror programs and modernize its own aging labs.
Tauzin and Dingell also establish a national database of dangerous pathogens, and impose new rules for registering 36 most deadly biological agents. As the anthrax investigation has progressed slowly, many in Congress were stunned to learn how little health officials or law enforcement agents knew about how many people or labs had substances like anthrax or who they were.
The bill also dedicates $100 million so the Food and Drug Administration can step up inspection of imported foods, and gives a similar amount to safeguard the water supply. (Additional reporting by Randy Fabi)
So the FBI can put him under total surveilance and see if he's stupid enough to try to contact anyone else.
Probably because they are being held on immigration charges and have not yet been linked to the anthrax mailings. Even if they get out on bail, they will be watched carefully.