Legislation that would require the United States to develop a national biodefense strategy to help prevent and respond to a bioterrorist attack or public health emergency is awaiting Senate floor action.
The Biodefense Strategy Act of 2016, S. 2967, would amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to require the president to execute a comprehensive national biodefense strategy, aligning the numerous agencies, programs and resources across government that focus on improving U.S. defense against biological threats.
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, sponsored the bill, introducing it in May. It was placed on the Senate legislative calendar this week.
Biological threats are wide-ranging and include biological attacks from terrorists, accidental releases of dangerous pathogens in high-level laboratories and outbreaks of infectious diseases.
Over the last two years, the U.S. has faced several major biological incidents, including Ebola, avian influenza and now the mosquito-borne Zika virus.
Johnson addressed a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing in April on the state of the nation’s biodefense, saying in prepared remarks that, “We need to work together to identify and close gaps in our preparedness and response.”
The bill calls for the establishment of a Biodefense Coordination Council with representatives from key federal agencies. Part of the council’s mandate will be to set goals to strengthen the government’s ability to prevent, detect, respond to and recover from a major biological incident.
Under the legislation, the president would be required to report to Congress on the status of the strategy every 180 days until it is completed and to update the strategy at least every five years. The bill would also require the president to submit an annual report detailing total federal expenditures on biodefense activities and how those expenses relate to the priorities established in the strategy.
In formulating the biodefense strategy, the joint efforts between the Armed Forces and the rest of government’s biodefense activities would be reviewed. In addition, lessons learned from the government’s response to public health emergencies within the last five years would be incorporated into the strategy.
The National Biodefense Strategy Act includes key recommendations made by the bipartisan Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense. The panel, led by former U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman and former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, released its national blueprint for biodefense in 2015 with recommendations for ensuring that the U.S. is prepared to face potential biological threats.
Among the report’s chief findings was the conclusion that the United States lacks a single federal leader for biodefense, a comprehensive national strategy and a dedicated biodefense budget.
“The United States is underprepared for biological threats,” the panel’s report said.
The need for strong federal biodefense policies has been evident since 2001 when deadly anthrax spores were mailed in letters to several offices in the United States, infecting 22 people and killing five.
According to a report on the bill by the Senate Homeland Security Committee, several bipartisan and independent commissions and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued reports identifying significant gaps in the nation’s biodefense capabilities, which includes preparedness for natural disease outbreaks.
The U.S. government spends approximately $6 billion each year on biodefense-specific activities, but the report highlighted the GAO’s finding of a fragmentation of biodefense leadership. The GAO said that there are more than two dozen presidentially appointed individuals with biodefense responsibilities and numerous federal agencies with mission responsibilities for supporting biodefense activities. No individual or entity, however, has responsibility for overseeing the nation’s biodefense enterprise.