Lieberman, Collins seek to secure high-risk US labs while strengthening international efforts to do the same abroad
Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) Tuesday introduced a bill that would initiate a multi-layered security effort in support of a comprehensive framework to protect Americans from a terrorist attack using a weapon of mass destruction in general and one using a biological agent in particular.
The Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Prevention and Preparedness Act of 2009, unveiled three days before the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, would identify and categorize the most dangerous pathogens with greatest potential for use in a biological attack and improve security at laboratories that handle those most dangerous pathogens, Lieberman explained at a press conference in Washington, DC.
As the bill would mandate security requirements for those laboratories handling the highest-risk biological agents and keep track of others, it would not place an unnecessary burden to comply with regulations on the scientific research community as a whole, Lieberman contended.
The legislation also would set up a national strategy for dispensing medical countermeasures for a WMD attack to the public, expanding the use of the US Postal Service for that goal, Lieberman continued. The United States has spent billions of dollars on stockpiling medicines for treating biological agents but still lacks a plan for distributing those medicines after an attack, he said.
The act would provide medical kits for emergency responders so that they could medicate themselves first before helping the public at large. It also would put into place a communications plan to inform the public on what to do in the "critical moments" after a WMD attack, Lieberman revealed. Those communications would include information about the direction of radioactive or biological plumes and information on whether people should shelter in place or evacuate an affected area.
The WMD bill would further compel the secretary of State to build an International Biosecurity Coalition by providing training and assistance to other countries to improve their laboratory security and disease surveillance measures. It also would direct the director of national intelligence to bolster intelligence gathering on WMDs and the terrorists using them by authorizing the hire of additional scientists and interpreters. The act would authorize a National Bioforensics Analysis Center for the identification of the perpetrators of any biological attacks.
Collins stressed the importance of setting defenses against biological attacks, which the bill singles out as the preeminent WMD threat.
"In contrast to nuclear weapons, the technological hurdles are lower to develop and disseminate a bioweapon. Access to dangerous pathogens is more widespread and harder to contain. The spread of biotechnology, the difficulty of detecting such pathogens, and terrorists' known interest in bioterrorist combine to produce a great menace," Collins told reporters at the press conference to introduce the bill.
A biological WMD attack could claim thousands of victims before authorities even realize an attack has occurred, she added.
Collins noted that 400 research facilities and 15,000 individuals in United States have authorization to handle deadly pathogens. As such, the WMD bill would mandate security measures based on a tiered approach that accounts for the amount and degree of risk posed by pathogens at specific facilities.
"The greater the risk, the more stringent the security requirements," Collins declared.
To assist with those security measures, the bill would authorize a grant program that provides $50 million annually in each of the next four years after the bill takes effect. Collins identified the grant program as the single biggest cost of the bill.
WMD Commission
The bill follows a report issued in December 2008 by the Commission on the Prevent of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism, chaired by former Sens. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) and Jim Talent (R-Mo.). Graham and Talent, who joined Lieberman and Collins at the press briefing, applauded the WMD bill, which would implement recommendations set forth in their commission's report, titled "World at Risk."
"We are losing ground in terms of our protection against a weapon of mass destruction being used in the United States and the world. Its not [because] we have not been derelict or slow to respond but...our adversary has been moving at a quickened pace," Graham warned.
"Without immediate and serious attention, more likely than not a WMD attack will occur someplace on earth by 2013," he added, citing the major conclusion of the WMD report.
The WMD bill would allow the United States to show global leadership that it could use to win significant improvements to nuclear and biological nonproliferation treaties in the next several years, Graham noted.
Signatories to the Nonproliferation Treaty, the major international instrument for dealing with nuclear nonproliferation, next meets in 2010 under a five-year meeting cycle. The United States must prepare to demand significant new authorities in that treaty and stabilization of funding for the International Atomic Energy Agency, Graham argued.
In 2011, signatories to the Biological Weapons Convention meet to review that treaty, he continued. The Biological Weapons Convention, which is weaker than Nonproliferation Treaty, requires a major overhaul, he asserted.
Meanwhile, Talent said, a biological attack would not be difficult for a terrorist organization like al Qaeda to pull off.
"We know that terrorists want to do this. We have direct evidence that this is a priority for them. It fits their strategy of asymmetrical attacks. We have know they have the organizational sophistication to do this; they don't have to become some entirely new form of organization to get this. And we know that opportunities for them to get the weapons are proliferating," Talent stressed.
Talent added that one of the most effective things the bill would do is to provide authorities to federal agencies and pool their resources in support of WMD security.
"The genius of the legislation is that in some cases it strengthens and in some cases it unifies," he said, noting that the departments of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, and Agriculture--which all have a hand in laboratory security--do not necessarily coordinate their actions.
Lieberman indicated he hopes to hold a markup of the bill in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee this fall and move on a vote by the full Senate as quickly as possible. The House does not yet have a companion bill.
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