Pascrell Bill Confronts Bioterror Fantasy With Recommendations
Congressman Bill Pascrell introduced legislation on Friday that he claims “would improve U.S. efforts to prevent, protect, respond, and recover from a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) attack in the United States”. It sounds serious.
“For years, we have had the benefit of the WMD Commission’s findings and recommendations, but we still have not acted upon them,” Pascrell warns. To deal with the problem, Pascrell has introduced H.R. 2356, the The Weapons of Mass Destruction Prevention and Preparedness Act of 2011.
How would H.R. 2356 act upon the WMD Commission’s recommendations? Mostly, the legislation merely repeats the recommendations made by the commission. Pascrell’s bill, if passed, would “call for”, but not actually establish:
“appointment of a special assistant to the President for biodefense to coordinate federal biodefense policy
the development of a national biodefense plan and a coordinated budget that assess capability gaps and spending inefficiencies
a national biosurveillance strategy.
provisions for our first responders, including voluntary vaccinations and response guidance for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear incidents
authorization of the Securing the Cities program to allow for interdiction of a radiological device in high-risk cities”
H.R. 2356 would fund certain vaccines with short shelf lives to state and local law enforcement. Such vaccination would not, of course, protect the general population.
Of course, bioterrorism has proved not to be much of a problem. The anthrax attacks of 2001 turned out to come from a misguided domestic source, in an attempt to push the government into a more strident antibioterrorist stance, rather than from a foreign enemy. The United States has never been the victim of a bioterror attack from a foreign enemy.
The bioterrorist threat has turned out to be a fantasy. That makes the The Weapons of Mass Destruction Prevention and Preparedness Act an ineffective response to a threat that doesn’t exist.
