The Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense has received a $1.3 million grant from the Open Philanthropy Project to allow the panel to continue its leadership role in assessing the nation’s biodefense systems, issuing recommendations and advocating for their implementation and informing policymakers and lawmakers on viable avenues for needed change.
The Open Philanthropy Project identifies outstanding giving opportunities, makes grants, follows the results, and publishes its findings. Its mission is to give as effectively as it can and share the findings openly so that anyone can build on them.
“The deadly anthrax attacks took place just days after my arrival in Washington to head up homeland security in the wake of 9/11,” said Gov. Tom Ridge (R-Penn), the first Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and co-chair of the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense. “Fifteen years later, it is troubling that we still do not have a comprehensive approach to preparing for and responding to biological events. That is why this grant from Open Philanthropy is so critical. It will allow us to push forward the recommendations detailed in our National Blueprint and seek to put them into action.”
“Biological threats are among the most important risks to our safety and security,” said Jaime Yassif, Program Officer for Biosecurity and Pandemic Preparedness at the Open Philanthropy Project. “Strengthening US biodefense capacity is a critical issue that requires sustained attention by Congress and the Executive Branch. We are delighted to support the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense and the leadership role they are taking in this area.”
“While much good work has been achieved toward biodefense, there remains a systemic failure in the enterprise designed to protect Americans from biological events,” the grant announcement stated, noting that, “The panel has identified weaknesses and recommended 33 steps the government can take to shore up the national biodefense posture in its report, A National Blueprint for Biodefense: Leadership and Major Reform Needed to Optimize Efforts.
Released in October 2015, “The report assesses ongoing efforts; articulates actions to improve the nation’s biodefense capabilities to prevent, deter, prepare for, detect, respond to, attribute, recover from and mitigate biological incidents; and identifies near and long-term actions by current and future Congresses and Presidential administrations.
“On behalf of the staff and panel members, I would like to thank Open Philanthropy for their vision to recognize that critical investments are needed to close the gaps that still exist 15 years after 9/11 and the anthrax attacks that sent shock waves inside the Washington beltway and across the country,” said co-chair, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn).
Lieberman noted that progress has been made since the panel presented its findings last fall. Before Congress recessed, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs passed Chairman Ron Johnson’s (R-WI) National Biodefense Strategy Act of 2016, but the bill, the product of a major recommendation by the panel, languishes in the Senate.
Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) successfully attached that bill to the Senate’s National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017. The House has comparable language in its own defense authorization bill. Lieberman said it is incumbent on the two chambers to conference and send a defense authorization bill, complete with a National Biodefense Strategy provision, to the President.
