Obama to announce new bioterror efforts in State of the Union

The US federal government is failing to boost capabilities to protect the American population from the mass casualties that would result from a biological terrorist attack, according to the final report card issued Tuesday from the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Proliferation and Terrorism.

The WMD Commission also assigned failing grades to the decentralized congressional oversight of homeland security and intelligence and recruitment efforts for the US national security workforce.

"Nearly a decade after Sept. 11, 2001, one year after our original report, and one month after the Christmas Day bombing attempt, the United States is failing to address several urgent threats, especially bioterrorism," former Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), chairman of the commission, said in a statement.  "Each of the last three administrations has been slow to recognize and respond to the biothreat. But we no longer have the luxury of a slow learning curve, when we know al Qaeda is interested in bioweapons."

The White House quickly released a statement Tuesday strongly disagreeing with the findings of the report. White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said President Barack Obama began a major initiative last year to address the threat of bioterrorism.

During his State of the Union address Wednesday night, Obama will announce further moves to boost production of US medical countermeasures to biological agents and to speed delivery of countermeasures in the event of a bioterrorism attack, Shapiro added.

Speaking at a separate press conference Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said she had not yet read the WMD commission's report, but she strongly defended the Obama administration's actions to defend against bioterrorism.

"I can say the administration has had major initiatives on detection in the bio area, diagnosis in the bio area, medical countermeasures that can be taken in the bio area, and response and recovery in the bio area. We will continue to work on that issue as well as others," Napolitano told reporters.

Addressing the threat posed by biological agents remains a big priority for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the entire administration, she said.

"We know that it is one of the things that terrorists could use in the future or indeed even now," Napolitano commented. "It runs across the federal government, across the administration. Major measures have been taken in the past 10 months. Obviously, this is an area that we are going to continue to work on. The goal is to keep the American people safe."

The WMD Commission released its first report, titled World at Risk, in December 2008 to warn that a WMD attack would more likely than not occur somewhere in the world by the end of 2013. The report further noted that the WMD attack likely would involve a biological agent rather than a nuclear one.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last fall introduced the WMD Prevention and Preparedness Act of 2009 (S. 1649) in response to the commission's original report.

The House plans to introduce companion legislation, drafted with the assistance of the WMD Commission, in the coming months. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, indicated he was pleased with the commission's work to date.

"This report card is a well-timed reminder that even as we struggle against conventional terrorist plots--such as the one Christmas Day--we mustn't lose focus on the risk of nuclear or biological attacks," Thompson said in a statement Tuesday.

Failing grade

The Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism Report Card, released Tuesday, graded the US executive and legislative branches in 17 specific areas across the original 13 recommendations and 49 actions required to prevent WMD terrorism in the original report, World at Risk.

The report card hit preparedness efforts for biological warfare particularly hard, giving the US government an "F." The commission pointed to difficulties in producing vaccine for the H1N1 swine flu virus as reason for concern should a bioterrorism event occur.

"As the delayed response to H1N1 has demonstrated, the United States is woefully behind in its capability to rapidly produce vaccines and therapeutics, essential steps for adequately responding to a biological threat, whether natural or man-made," the report card read.

"H1N1 came with months of warning. But even with time to prepare, the epidemic peaked before most Americans had access to vaccine. A bioattack will come with no such warning," the report warned.

The United States must develop rapid detection and diagnostic capabilities to understand when a biological attack is occurring and have the capacity to send "actionable information" to elected officials and American citizens, the report said.

The federal government also must ensure adequate supplies of medical countermeasures for biological agents and the rapid distribution of such countermeasures. Those sickened by a biological attack must receive prompt treatment while the government protects those who are well.

A national plan to coordinate federal, state and local responses to a bioterrorism attack should draw all of these elements together but no such plan exists, the report stated. Furthermore, the United States lacks the technical capabilities to mount an effective response should a bioterrorism event occur.

DHS has estimated that developing the necessary medical countermeasures to meet the bioterrorism threat would cost $3.4 billion annually for five years. But the funding for that effort in fiscal 2010 is less than one-tenth that amount, the report lamented.

Oversight and recruitment

The WMD commission also assigned failing grades to Congress' ability to effectively reorganize itself to oversee DHS and intelligence activities and to US efforts to recruit national security personnel.

"We are also enormously frustrated about the failure of Congress to reform homeland security oversight," former Sen. Jim Talent (R-Mo.), vice chairman of the commission, said in a statement.  "The department can't do its job, if it is responding to more than 80 congressional committees and sub-committees.  This fragmentation guarantees that much of what Congress does is duplicative and disjointed."

Congress has not even taken very simple preliminary steps into consolidating oversight authority of DHS, the report card said. Various estimates identify 82-108 congressional committees and subcommittees that can call oversight hearings for some part of DHS.

The 9/11 Commission recommended that Congress collapse that authority into single central committees in the House and Senate in 2004. The WMD Commission repeated that call, identifying the House Homeland Security Committee and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee as the logical places to do so. Moreover, both chambers should stand up an intelligence subcommittee within their appropriations committees, the report card said.

The need to address a growing shortfall in the US national security workforce was identified in the recommendations of the Hart-Rudman Commission in 1999, the report said. A lack of training and recruiting efforts for these professionals "represents a fundamental failure of government" and thus earned an "F" in the report card.

"Proposals like that of the Director of National Intelligence to establish an Intelligence Officer Training Corps, modeled on the military's ROTC program, are critical to provide future scientific and engineering personnel as well as linguistic and area studies for developing capable analysts," the report card stated. "While the use of contract personnel fills some vacancies, the practice is overly expensive, creates no lasting organizational expertise, and is, at best, a short-term solution to a long-term problem."

Other grades

In addition to the three failing grades, the report card assigned grades to 14 other areas.

The US government also performed poorly in tightening oversight of high-containment laboratories (D+).

But the government received better grades in its nuclear threat reduction and nonproliferation efforts, such as conducting a comprehensive review of the domestic program to secure dangerous pathogens (A); strengthening domestic and global disease surveillance networks (C); proposing new action for achieving universal adherence to the Biological Weapons Convention (B+); developing a strategy for advancing bioforensic capabilities (A); working with Russia to reduce the dangers of WMD (C); strengthening the nonproliferation regime (B); and reviewing cooperative nuclear security programs (B+).

The report card also assigned passing grades for integrating efforts to coordinate, integrate, and deliver foreign assistance, public diplomacy and strategic communications (C); designating a White House advisor for WMD proliferation and terrorism (A-); creating a more efficient policy coordination structure by reorganizing the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council (A-); practicing greater openness of public information to help US citizens understand the WMD threat (B-); and working with a consortium of state and local governments to improve preparedness for a WMD attack (C).

The Obama administration received an incomplete grade for implementing a comprehensive policy toward Pakistan, due to the relatively short length of time since the administration instituted new diplomatic and military strategies with Pakistan.