WASHINGTON–In the month marking the 10-year anniversary of the anthrax attacks in the U.S., the top Democrat on the Senate homeland security committee worries that federal agencies may not have a coordinated response plan for the next biological attack.
“A multitude of federal agencies … have some responsibility for bioterrorism,” said Sen. Susan Collins, reeling off the list: departments of homeland security, agriculture and health and human services, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and the FBI among them. “It concerns me that so many different federal entities would be scrambling to respond during and after an attack.”
During a recent homeland security committee hearing, Collins said this “alphabet soup” creates a major gap in the nation’s response capabilities.
Robert P. Kadlec, former assistant to the president for homeland security, suggested creating a director of bio-defense in the National Security Council as a start.
“A NSC head of bio-defense would be necessary, but not enough,” he testified before the committee. “You need to do all of it, not just some of it.”
Former South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle, who received an anthrax letter in his Senate office during the 2001 attacks, said it’s time to focus on rededicating the nation’s efforts toward bio-security.
But Tara O’Toole, undersecretary for Science and Technology, told the senators that in today’s tight budget, “collaboration with the federal agencies is going to become more imperative as we try to conserve resources and make sure our priorities are correct.”
Kadlec agreed, but also suggested small, targeted increases in funding to sustain state and local emergency services and improved medical countermeasure development, he said.
Jeff Levi, executive director for Trust for America’s Health who spoke at a panel on anthrax at the Center for American Progress on Oct 13, said bio-security has been pushed to the side since 2001.
“There was an ongoing commitment to bio-security for about five years,” he said, “and then Congress hit the snooze button.”