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James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies
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Research Story of the WeekLegislative Response to Potential Bioterrorist Threat
By Kristin Thompson On June 12, 2002, President George W. Bush held a Rose Garden ceremony to sign into law the "Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002." The ceremony, attended by Senate cosponsors Bill Frist (R-TN) and Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and House cosponsors W.J. "Billy" Tauzin (R-LA) and John Dingell (D-MI), highlighted the bipartisan Congressional support for this far-reaching legislation.[1] The new law seeks to significantly increase America's ability to prepare for, prevent, detect and respond to bioterrorism in an efficient and coordinated manner. Title I Title I of the law primarily addresses issues of emergency preparedness and response. It directs the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop a national preparedness strategy designed to improve communications between state and local governments and federal agencies, and authorizes grant programs to that end. It also requires the development of a comprehensive plan to combat disease outbreak. The plan will ensure that health care facilities nationwide have adequate capacity, up-to-date equipment, and highly trained personnel capable of identifying possible bioterrorist attacks. Legislators drafting the bill determined that the ability to identify and treat disease outbreaks was the best way to foil terrorist intentions. Therefore, the bill specifically provides funding to train and educate public health professionals with respect to recognition and identification of potential bioterrorist incidents.[2] In total, the bill authorizes approximately $1.5 billion in grants to state and local governments to improve communications, community and hospital preparedness, laboratory capacity, and education of health care personnel.[3] It authorizes nearly $1.2 billion to expand stockpiles of vaccines, drugs, and other treatment measures.[4] Title II The bill also combats potential sub-state biological weapons proliferation more directly by restricting access to dangerous pathogens to individuals who can demonstrate genuine need. By enacting measures to track the possession, use, or transfer of 36 of the most dangerous biological agents, the law dramatically cuts the numbers of people with access to pathogens and enables the government to screen potential users for suspected terrorist activity or association with terrorist groups. It also requires individuals or groups working with any agent on the list of dangerous pathogens to register with a federal database, a significant change from existing law, which requires notification only in cases of biological agent transferal. It increases accountability standards by requiring HHS to review and republish the list of restricted agents every two years. Additionally, the act mandates the establishment of new standards of lab protection and security measures for facilities that handle select agents and procedures to deal with breaches in transfer or possession safeguards.[5] Additional Provisions Finally, the bill addresses additional aspects of bioterrorism related to food and water supply safety. By improving the process by which imported food is inspected, this bill aims to decrease the likelihood that imported food can become a vehicle for bioterrorism through tampering. Similarly, the new law contains provisions to ensure safe drinking water by requiring community water suppliers to undertake an assessment of their facilities in order to identify and correct vulnerabilities. A last provision will reauthorize the Prescription Drug User Fee Act, which will provide funds to enable the Federal Drug Administration to more effectively monitor adverse events and publish market studies of newly approved drugs and biologics.[6] Conclusion Military and health care professionals have warned of national unpreparedness to both detect and contain biological threats for several years.[7] However, worries about unconventional attacks involving biological agents increased after the tragedy of September 11, 2001, and were exacerbated by the October anthrax attacks. Lawmakers in both the House and the Senate drafted legislation to reduce the threat posed by bioterrorism shortly thereafter. The House adopted its version of the bill, H.R. 3448, on December 12, 2001. Eight days later, a version of H.R. 3448 amended to include S. 1765, the Kennedy-Frist bill, passed the Senate. The two houses of Congress agreed to a conference in order to resolve substantive differences, and the resulting bill was approved nearly unanimously in late May of 2002.[8] The bill is
considered a step forward in the fight against bioterrorism because it improves
plans to prevent as well as to respond to an attack. As cosponsor
"Billy" Tauzin stated, "This is a major milestone in our
ongoing efforts to safeguard the security of all American citizens. It is
absolutely critical that our nation's public health emergency system be
prepared to respond to new and emerging threats."[9] Coordination across
levels of government and among public health providers, increased standards of
accountability for those working with selected biological agents, and new
emphasis on food and water safety will reduce the threat posed by bioterrorism
and public health emergencies. However, specific issues that may need to be
addressed in the future include: mechanisms to enforce verification and
compliance with biological agent registration system regulations, criteria for
"need-based" work with restricted biological agents, and protection
of water supply facilities after "vulnerability assessments" are
concluded and reported to the Environmental Protection Agency.[10]
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