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The Senate recently passed legislation that authorizes $75 million annually for the Department of Homeland Security’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program for fiscal years 2020 through 2024.
The program provides grants to nonprofits and faith-based organizations to protect against a potential... Read More »
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Rep. Anthony Brindisi (D-NY) recently introduced legislation classifying seven Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) as defined by section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
The Identifying Drug Cartels as Terrorists Act would... Read More »
President Donald Trump signed the $738 billion defense bill into law last week, which includes funding to create the sixth branch of the military – the U.S. Space Force.
“Today [also] marks another landmark achievement as we officially inaugurate the newest branch of the military [United... Read More »
The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) has delivered a cautious appraisal of the federal spending bill for FY 2020, noting that while it will strengthen public health and research efforts, it undercuts -- at Americans’ peril -- HIV investment and immunization efforts, among... Read More »
It’s a disease that’s killed millions of pigs globally, crippled farming, and has no cure. African swine fever has devastated the Asian pork industry, as China has culled about half of its total swine population since the disease took hold of that country in August 2018.
Outbreaks of African... Read More »
Approximately $200 million has been allocated for the creation of a universal influenza vaccine that could protect against multiple strains of the flu virus in Congress’s year-end spending package.
U.S. Sen, Edward Markey (D-MA) has spearheaded the effort to boost funding for the flu vaccine.... Read More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Thursday the approval of a vaccine created by Merck & Co., Inc. as a preventative measure against the Zaire strain of the Ebola virus in individuals 18 years of age or older.
In 2018, the World Health Organization and the Democratic Republic... Read More »
Federal regulations that went into effect on Nov. 21 for the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program are already being challenged in federal court, just as one of New York’s most-influential federal legislators signs on to a proposal that some say doesn’t go far enough to end ongoing fraud in the... Read More »
Provisions included in the FY2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) promise substantial federal funding for New Mexico’s military, labs, PFAS contamination cleanup efforts, and other initiatives throughout the state.
The funds track numerous fields, promising boosts to military... Read More »
The Terrorism Risk Insurance Program is expected to be extended for seven years as is it part of a government funding package that is anticipated to pass in Congress this week.
The Terrorism Risk Insurance Program was established following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Through a... Read More »
The U.S. House Appropriations Committee on Monday released the domestic priorities and international assistance appropriations minibus, which includes ramped-up final budget amounts for several biodefense-related items, including the Strategic National Stockpile.
In releasing the text of the... Read More »
Attorneys general from every U.S. state and territory have endorsed a bill by U.S. Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) that would permanently criminalize fentanyl-related substances.
In February 2018, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) issued a temporary order to criminalize fentanyl-related... Read More »
One of the most searing memories Thomas Frieden had during the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak was one in which he deeply questioned the international community’s effectiveness in supporting the health infrastructure of Ebola-plagued nations.
Then head of the Centers for Disease Control and... Read More »
Researchers at the University of Queensland have created a technology that will help create safer hybrid viruses at higher volumes for research and diagnostic efforts involving mosquito-borne diseases.
The key to the technology was the Binjari virus. Study researchers exploited the benign... Read More »
The Stop TB Partnership launched an update to its plan to end tuberculosis that includes billions in annual funding.
The partnership’s Global Plan to End TB 2018-2022 calls for $2.6 billion per year for the research and development of new tuberculosis (TB) diagnostic tools, new drug regimens,... Read More »
Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) are testing a vaccine to protect against serious diarrheal illnesses caused by food and water contaminated with bacteria like E. coli and Shigella.
Drs. Wilbur Chen and Eileen Barry will lead these tests, thanks to $4.5... Read More »
Per an agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Sanofi Pasteur will gain $226 million to increase its domestic pandemic influenza vaccine production capabilities.
This money will go to the clinical development and manufacturing of an adjuvanted recombinant pandemic... Read More »
A group of Republican congressmen recently urged the U.S. State Department to designate Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs).
“Think about this: a Mexican state that shares a 230-mile border with the U.S. holds the same State Department travel warning as Iran and... Read More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration launched CURE ID, an online repository that allows the clinical community to report their experiences treating infectious diseases.
CURE ID – which can be accessed via smartphone or other mobile devices – is a platform that enables the crowdsourcing of... Read More »
The Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP) awarded about $376 million in grants to reinforce public safety efforts across the United States.
“Crime and violence hold families, friends, and neighborhoods hostage. They also rip those communities apart,” Principal Deputy... Read More »
The constantly changing nature of the influenza virus makes it an annual effort of scientists, manufacturers, and the medical community to devise and disseminate vaccines to combat the disease.
What if those efforts could be streamlined to develop a universal flu vaccine that could attack any... Read More »
A bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate this week that seeks to protect people’s personal data online.
The Data Care Act would require websites, apps, and other online providers to take steps to protect users’ personal information and prevent the misuse of users’ data.
“People have a... Read More »
U.S. Reps. Xochitl Torres Small (D-NM) and Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) introduced a bill to improve border security through enhanced detection technology at land ports of entry.
The Securing America’s Ports Act seeks to increase the scanning rates of vehicles entering the United States by land with... Read More »
The World Health Organization has reported 440,263 confirmed cases of measles as of Nov. 5., with most in Africa.
Specifically, in Africa, outbreaks are ongoing in Madagascar, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the Congo, there are 250,270 suspected cases with 5,110... Read More »
U.S. Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) released a statement last week supporting the creation of an interagency task force tasked with addressing the high rate of missing and murdered Native American women and girls.
Native American women in certain tribal communities are 10 times more likely to be murdered... Read More »
Members of the Michigan congressional delegation are urging the new Secretary of the Air Force Barbara Barrett to select Selfridge Air National Guard Base to host the Air National Guard’s next F-35A operational base.
In a letter to Barrett, 14 members of Congress from Michigan highlighted the... Read More »
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) held its Electronic Warfare Advisory Committee (NEWAC) meeting this week to discuss electronic warfare (EW) and strategies and initiatives to counter it.
Electronic warfare (EW) is a military action that exploits electromagnetic energy to provide... Read More »
The nation’s land grant universities play an important role in helping the federal government bolster agro-defense, according to scientists, policymakers, industry and academic leaders who participated in a recent Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense event held at Colorado State University... Read More »
With the advancement of U.S. Sens. Gary Peters’ (D-MI) and Rob Portman’s (R-OH) State and Local Government Cybersecurity Act, the Senate has signaled encouragement to federal authorities to coordinate better with state and local governments.
“State and local governments with limited... Read More »
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently approved the reopening and partial operations of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DOD’s) lead laboratory for medical biological defense research.
This... Read More »
Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) were among a group of U.S. Senators that expressed their concerns that the U.S. Department of Commerce has started issuing export licenses to U.S. firms to do business with Huawei Technologies.
Huawei, the Chinese telecom company, was added to the... Read More »
The Senate Banking Committee advanced legislation to extend the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program for seven years.
The Terrorism Risk Insurance Program was established following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The program – created after Congress passed the Terrorism Risk... Read More »
China is rapidly gaining on the United States when it comes to creating technology that mitigates disease threats and developing pharmaceuticals faster, and it’s a phenomenon driven by a philosophy that the state, military, and the private sector are one in the same.
That was the testimony of... Read More »
The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations held a hearing on a report on a Chinese program that captures U.S. Intellectual property.
Through its “talent recruitment plans” launched in the 1990s, China began recruiting U.S.-based scientists and researchers and providing... Read More »
Austin, Texas-based Factom, Inc. has secured $197,292 in funding from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) to enhance blockchain security system development.
DHS officials said they envision agencies using the technology to create and verify... Read More »
