BioShield: lessons from current efforts to develop bio-warfare countermeasures: hearing before the Select Committee on Homeland Security, House of ... Eighth Congress, first session, June 6, 2003

LC Number: KF27 .H58 2003h OCLC Number: (OCoLC)57680930 Subject: Biological warfare -- United States -- Prevention. Excerpt: ...HS for performing the threat assessment required for the success of BioShield. I want to thank Chairmen Shadegg and Gibbons for holding that hearing. This hearing is intended to bring the benefit of the valuable experience of other existing biothreat programs to our discussion of BioShield and the role of DHS. This hearing will help us understand the challenges the Department of Homeland Security will face and the capabilities that it must develop. We have witnesses with us from the National Institutes of Health and the Center for Disease Control, both within the Department of Health and Human Services. HHS already performs threat assessment that is closely related to the kind of analysis that DHS will be required to perform for the BioShield legislation. The Secretary of Health and Human Services is required by the Bioterrorism Preparedness Act of 2002 to maintain a list of agents and toxins that could potentially pose a severe threat to the public health. This list is then used to set research and response priorities within the Federal Government In order to be successful, DHS must perform these assessments and more. The Secretary must be able to combine a determination of which agents are most intrinsically dangerous with an intelligence assessment of terrorist capabilities. I hope this hearing gives us an idea of what this entails and whether there is anything that we in Congress must do as we consider this legislation to help the Department fully meet its mandate. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses. The Chair would now recognize the ranking member, Mr. Turner, for his opening statement. Mr. Turner. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank you for your leadership on this issue of the biological threat that we face as a nation. I appreciate that this committee has been ag...