Congress Considering Biodefense Measure

Biodefense efforts confounded by congressional inertia // Source: umdnj.edu

submitted by Luis Kun

Homeland Security News Wire - May 15, 2012

H.R. 2356, the WMD Prevention and Preparedness Act of 2011, will soon be debated before four different House committees, before going to the Senate to be debated further – all this four years after a congressionally mandated commission defined bioterrorism as a grave threat to the United States; critics charge that the reason is the unwieldy and dysfunctional manner in which Congress oversees DHS: currently there are 108 congressional committees and subcommittees with oversight responsibilities for different parts of DHS.

All agree that this is an important piece of legislation. It calls for developing a national biodefense plan and a coordinated budget across government departments and agencies – in a way similar to the way the U.S. federal government’s has been handling nuclear and cybersecurity issues.

The bill would also require the appointment of a special assistant to the president for biodefense, a position which existed under Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, but the responsibilities of which the Obama administration has divided among several officials.

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