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Jack Gumtow, the Defense Intelligence Agency’s chief information officer, and Lt. Gen. Robert P. Ashley, Jr., the agency’s director, opened the Department of Defense Intelligence Information Systems Worldwide Conference on Tuesday in Tampa.
The theme of this year’s conference is how... Read More »
The danger of malaria is growing worldwide, according to Dr. Mark Travassos, assistant professor of Pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), and that demands greater access for those with serious cases to intravenously-administered (IV) drugs.
At present, access to... Read More »
U.S. Sens. Todd Young (R-IN) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) recently introduced legislation to significantly increase U.S. efforts in prevention, research, and technology development to help end the global tuberculosis epidemic.
The End Tuberculosis Now Act of 2019 would alter the existing Foreign... Read More »
The First Responder Network Authority passed an $82 million budget for Fiscal Year 2020, which includes funding for future investments in the nationwide public safety broadband network.
“The FirstNet Authority is an organization solely focused on public safety’s critical communications needs... Read More »
U.S. Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY) is asking U.S. Attorney General William Barr to investigate federal criminal and hate crime charges people who doused police officers with buckets of water.
In July, police officers in New York City were drenched with buckets of water and one officer was hit on the head... Read More »
The Strategies to Address Antibiotic Resistance (STAAR) Act was reintroduced to the Senate this week, raising the issue of what to do in the face of growing antibiotic resistance.
The legislation was introduced by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) in an attempt to increase data collection,... Read More »
Smallpox, eradicated globally in 1980, is on the cusp of a comeback thanks to advances in synthetic biology. Residual immunity in individuals who were previously vaccinated could mitigate the impact of a smallpox outbreak, but “a high degree of uncertainty” exists regarding the duration and... Read More »
In a study published in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, a scientific team reported that continued resistance to two critical antibiotic types that are still widely distributed in Southeast Asia is raising the risk of untreatable infections.
Carbapenems and polymyxins are being... Read More »
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), chairman of House Homeland Security Committee, met with Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan this week to discuss the threat of domestic terrorism following recent shootings in Gilroy, Calif., El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.
The Aug. 13 meeting took place in... Read More »
U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders have written to the U.S. Comptroller General requesting that the Government Accountability Office examine the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) new biodetection technology system known as BioDetection 21.
The BioDetection 21 pilot program... Read More »
The Florida Department of Health (DOH) in Miami-Dade County has issued mosquito advisories this week after confirmation of a locally acquired case of dengue virus in the region.
As the DOH-Miami-Dade, Miami-Dade County Mosquito Control and Habitat Management Division continues surveillance and... Read More »
The Sabin Vaccine Institute and GSK announced this week exclusive agreements for Sabin to advance the development of three GSK candidate vaccines against Ebola Zaire, Ebola Sudan, and the Marburg virus.
“These agreements with the Sabin Vaccine Institute are an important next step in the fight... Read More »
With research on hold at its Fort Detrick, Md., location following a federal-government-ordered shutdown, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) this week began what it deems “a major re-set of its biological safety program,” which provides leading-edge... Read More »
The U.S. Senate passed a bill this week that would allow federal workers to assist the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) with Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) efforts.
The National Urban Search and Rescue Parity Act would override a policy that currently bars federal employees from... Read More »
The United States officially withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty last week, ending a 30-year ban on a class of weapons that both the United States and the then Soviet Union, now Russia, recognized as particularly dangerous and destabilizing.
These land-based... Read More »
A bill urging the Trump Administration to place limits on Russia’s strategic nuclear arms was introduced in the U.S. Senate last week.
The legislation – sponsored by Sens. Todd Young (R-IN) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) -- calls for extending the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START)... Read More »
The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation advanced a bill that would authorize appropriations for the U.S. Coast Guard operations through Fiscal Year 2021.
The bill, among other things, will help the Coast Guard recruit and retain a workforce through a number of... Read More »
U.S. Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) introduced cybersecurity legislation this week, seeking to improve the work of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program.
Their solution is the Advancing Cybersecurity Continuing... Read More »
Every fiscal year — from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30 — the United States government says it makes available to qualified applicants roughly 140,000 employment-based immigrant visas in efforts to bring much-needed, highly skilled labor and foreign investment dollars to America.
It’s a critical... Read More »
U.S. Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) are encouraging the leadership of the Senate and House Armed Services Committee to include the DETER Act in the final National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) conference report.
The Defending Elections from Threats by Establishing... Read More »
Legislation to provide financial support to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives last week.
The Global Fund was established in 2002 to raise money to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. Contributions by the United States... Read More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently cleared the first use of a commercially available product to manage blister injuries caused by sulfur mustard, otherwise known as mustard gas.
Silverlon, a silver-plated nylon dressing, is used widely to aid in the management of acute skin wounds... Read More »
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) is partnering with biotech company Valneva to fund the development of a single-dose vaccine for the disease Chikungunya.
Chikungunya is spread by the bites of infected female Aedes mosquitoes. It causes fever, severe joint pain, muscle... Read More »
The World Bank Group is investing $300 million to support the global response to the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The investment follows a declaration by the World Health Organization (WHO) that the current Ebola outbreak constitutes a Public Health Emergency of... Read More »
The second longest outbreak of Ebola in history poses little immediate threat to the United States, officials told a U.S. Senate panel on Wednesday, but that could quickly change if the outbreak is not contained.
During a hearing titled, “Confronting Ebola: Addressing a 21st Century Global... Read More »
Thanks to the efforts of data analyst and visualization technologist Ryan Chen, of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a new model gives emergency responders a means of simulating and testing a situation no one ever wants to witness firsthand: the explosion of a radiological dispersal... Read More »
Senate lawmakers have approved a measure making the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund permanent and it will now go to the president’s desk to be signed into law.
Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Cory Gardner (R-CO), Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) and Reps. Carolyn B. Maloney... Read More »
Legislation that would crack down on addiction-driven human trafficking was introduced this week in the U.S. Senate.
The Protecting Rights of Those Exploited by Coercive Trafficking (PROTECT) Act would seek to prevent the use of drugs to facilitate human trafficking. Human traffickers often... Read More »
U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) is stepping up calls for more U.S. action to prevent a global Ebola outbreak, following last week’s announcement from the World Health Organization (WHO) designating the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as a Public Health Emergency of... Read More »
The U.S. Senate advanced legislation last week that would make it a federal crime to hack voting systems.
The Defending the Integrity of Voting Systems Act would give the Department of Justice the ability to investigate and prosecute those who seek to manipulate elections systems equipment.... Read More »
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and Colorado State University (CSU) have partnered to advance the development of a Rift Valley fever (RVF) virus vaccine.
The European Union’s (EU’s) Horizon 2020 program enabled CEPI to provide up to $9.5 million to the university... Read More »
A bill that would prohibit the removal of Chinese telecom company Huawei from the Commerce Department Entity List without an act of Congress was introduced in the U.S. Senate Tuesday.
The Entity List identifies entities reasonably believed to be involved in activities contrary to the national... Read More »
A new amendment advanced by the House last week will require the Inspector General of the Department of Defense (DOD) to investigate claims that the DOD weaponized Lyme disease in ticks and other insects from 1950 to 1975.
The amendment was introduced by U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), who has... Read More »
Rep. Susan W. Brooks (R-IN) recently expressed her support of the Senate’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), citing its ability to prioritize national security and provide military readiness funding increases.
She had previously voted against the House edition NDAA and... Read More »
A bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives last week to establish a task force at the Department of Homeland Security to stop the inflow of fentanyl and other opioids into the U.S.
The bill – the Joint Task Force to Combat Opioid Trafficking Act – is sponsored by Reps. Jim... Read More »
