House and Senate Negotiators Reach Agreement on Bioterrorism Bill

House and Senate negotiators on May 21 reached an agreement on legislation to strengthen the nation's preparedness against bioterrorist attacks, the New York Times reports. The House is expected to approve the measure this week, with Senate passage and President Bush's signature expected in early June. The bill, which will likely cost about $3 billion a year, with half of that going to states, is a compromise between separate measures approved by the House (HR 3348) and Senate (S 1715) last December in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks and subsequent anthrax incidents (Pear, New York Times, 5/22). The agreement calls for greater stockpiling of vaccines and antibiotics to protect against biological and chemical weapons, as well as expanded supplies of potassium iodide for communities near nuclear plants to handle contamination in the event of an attack (Dewar, Washington Post, 5/22). Under the legislation, hospitals would receive up to $520 million to purchase new equipment and train workers to respond to a bioterrorist attack. The bill also would expand the federal government's authority over the food supply, as it would "increase inspections of imported foods, require importers to give notice of shipments, require food manufacturers and processors to register with the government, ... authorize the FDA to detain food products without a court order if the items appeared to endanger public health" and "giv[e] federal agents broad new powers to inspect company records that might help trace the source or chain of distribution of tainted foods," the Times reports. The agreement also would require operators of drinking water systems to evaluate their vulnerability to a bioterrorist attack, develop emergency plans and submit them to the EPA. Under the agreement, the CDC would receive $300 million to upgrade its scientific equipment and laboratories (New York Times, 5/22). "Because of this bipartisan legislation, Americans will be able to sleep better at night in the knowledge that our nation is taking the steps necessary to protect them and their families against the deadly threat of bioterrorism," Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), a co-sponsor of the Senate bill, said (Washington Post, 5/22).