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With biological threats to America and its interests overseas increasing, waiting any longer to commit federal funds to national biodefense would not be in the best interests of the health and well-being of United States’ citizens, nor the country’s security, the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on... Read More »
U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) lauded new sanctions announced against shipping companies and vessels tied to North Korea on Friday as a necessary move to compel North Korea to engage in “a credible diplomatic process” with denuclearization as the ultimate goal.
The Treasury Department’s... Read More »
A union of Emergent BioSolutions Inc. and Valneva SE has led to the initiation of a Phase 1 clinical trial for a Zika virus vaccine candidate in the United States.
The purified inactivated vaccine candidate, VLA1601, has been developed using the same manufacturing platform as Valneva’s... Read More »
Legislation introduced in the House of Representatives on Friday aims to improve information sharing and engagement among the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) fusion centers, which collect and share information on threats with federal, state, local and private partners.
The DHS Field... Read More »
More than 50 groups marshalled by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) seek an act of Congress to rush urgently needed new antimicrobial drugs to market that protect America’s national security and the health of its citizens against biothreats posed by antimicrobial resistant (AMR)... Read More »
Citing North Korean ballistic missile threats, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) called on the Department of Defense (DoD) to include development and deployment of space-based missile defense in the 2018 Missile Defense Review (MDR).
In a letter to Defense Secretary James Mattis, Cruz highlighted... Read More »
A new x-ray image analysis training system that tracks the eye movements of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers as they conduct visual searches of travelers is currently being tested at airports across Oregon.
Known as ScreenADAPT, the technology is being developed by the... Read More »
U.S. Congressman Scott Peters (D-CA), whose 52nd District in San Diego County encompasses a large military presence that partners in strategic national defense, thinks it’s important the United States find smart solutions to biothreats that include preparedness for any catastrophic biological... Read More »
Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) are currently exploring the potential use of “collaborative autonomy” to creates a network of autonomous machines and humans that could be used by first responders.
The research team is developing a coordinated and distributed... Read More »
A House panel recently weighed a measure that would expand Customs and Border Protection (CBP) access to national forests, wildlife refuges, and other federal lands near the southern border without navigating an authorization process.
The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and... Read More »
Republican senators introduced legislation on Thursday that would establish a $25 billion trust fund for border security and codify legal protections for people covered under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
U.S. Sens. Jerry Moran (R-KS), Rob Portman (R-OH), and John... Read More »
The Open Philanthropy Project awarded a $2.5 million grant to the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense on Thursday, which will be used to help the organization continue to assess biodefense, identify needed changes and make recommendations.
In a 2015 report, the panel made 33 recommendations... Read More »
In urging Congress to reject public health cuts proposed by the Trump Administration, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) said on Wednesday that the fiscal year 2019 budget proposal reflects a “narrow and short-sighted understanding of national safety and well-being.”... Read More »
Whether an infectious disease ever reaches U.S. shores or not, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are now warning of the damage they could still do to U.S. interests--notably, its export economy.
In articles published in Health Security, the agency noted that there are 49... Read More »
The shift in Project BioShield Act of 2004 funding from its original 10-year appropriations cycle to year-by-year funding has posed challenges for the program by creating an uncertain climate for private-sector firms investing in developing medical countermeasures (MCM) against chemical,... Read More »
Following President Donald Trump’s release of his Fiscal Year 2019 budget proposal last week, U.S. Rep. Susan Brooks (R-IN) applauded the inclusion of a control shift of the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to the Department of Health... Read More »
With midterm elections approaching in November, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) warned on Monday that federal and state officials remain unable to ensure that elections are secure from outside attacks.
Klobuchar and former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson discussed... Read More »
Bills that would mandate that all multi-line telephone systems connect directly to 9-1-1 systems and would require the FCC to establish minimum call completion standards for intermediary phone providers in rural areas cleared the House of Representatives on Friday.
The Kari’s Law Act was... Read More »
Leaders of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee pressed U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for answers on Thursday amid reports that citizenship applications were approved without background checks and green cards were erroneously issued.
U.S. Sens. Ron... Read More »
Revelations that mobile devices can reveal the identities, activities and locations of U.S. service members stationed abroad prompted members of the Senate Armed Services Committee to call for a Department of Defense (DoD) review on Wednesday.
In a letter to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, U.S.... Read More »
Federal agencies would be given new tools to track white supremacist and other extremist groups and to coordinate multi-agency efforts under a bill introduced in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
Under the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, H.R. 4918, the Department of Homeland Security,... Read More »
Top officials at the Department of Homeland Security conceded Wednesday to a weariness and anxiety about the repeated congressional efforts to agree to a longtime spending plan, resulting in recurring threats of a government shutdown until a budget is voted.
Elaine Duke, deputy secretary of DHS,... Read More »
A framework would be established for law enforcers to legally access email communications stored on overseas cloud-based servers, and U.S. officials would be authorized to negotiate bilateral data sharing agreements with foreign countries, under a Senate bill announced on Monday.
The Clarifying... Read More »
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced new sanctions against six individuals and seven entities tied to Hezbollah on Friday in an effort to cripple the terrorist organization’s business operations.
The six individuals targeted by OFAC sanctions, all... Read More »
Pointing to pledges made in the State of the Union speech earlier this week, both the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and HIV Medicine Association have asked Congress and President Donald Trump to raise budget caps for both defense and nondefense spending.
Their reasoning is that... Read More »
In response to reports that the fitness-tracking platform Strava shared user information that could be used to identify military installations, members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee sought information about company data security practices and potential changes on Wednesday.
Strava... Read More »
The FBI does not currently have a hard-and-fast threshold or indicators to determine the appropriate response when America’s small businesses face cyber attacks, according to testimony before a House panel on Tuesday.
The House Small Business Committee convened a hearing to probe the federal... Read More »
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) added government-wide personnel security clearance to its “High Risk List” on Thursday, which designates programs in need of transformational changes to reduce the risk of waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement.
GAO typically updates the High Risk... Read More »
Ahead of Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis on Sunday, the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is conducting measurements of naturally occurring background radiation using a low-flying helicopter.
Naturally occurring radiation measurements are a standard security... Read More »
In order to shield international financial markets from Iranian money laundering and terrorist financing, U.S. Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) said last week that the Financial Action Task Force must continue to blacklist Iran and re-impose countermeasures.
Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs... Read More »
Chinese fentanyl sellers commonly use United States Postal Service (USPS) to traffic the drug into the United States because USPS and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have not yet adopted widespread use of advanced electronic data (AED), according to a Senate report released on Wednesday. ... Read More »
The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) recently received a $6 million grant from the Open Philanthropy Project that will help strengthen its efforts to mitigate global biological threats that have increased as the world has become more interconnected.
According to Dr. Elizabeth Cameron, NTI’s... Read More »
The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) announced this week that it will be working bilaterally with Israeli counterparts through five separate divisions on projects meant to aid public security.
While the United States and Israel began annual bilateral... Read More »
Decreased and episodic funding from the United States government has stakeholders questioning the true commitment federal lawmakers have for sustaining the nation’s preparedness and response capabilities during a catastrophic event linked to infectious diseases, natural disasters or chemical,... Read More »
A Seattle-based software company that keeps police officers, firemen and other first responders connected to essential information while they’re working in the field has strengthened its hold on the public safety market.
NetMotion Software Inc. has distributed its security, performance and... Read More »
