Monday, 02 November 2009
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Bio Security and Barack Obama
Legislation intended to help prevent an attack with biological weapons failed to clear a key Senate committee today, mainly because the Obama administration has not told Congress what it wants in the bill.
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joseph Lieberman and ranking member Susan Collins hoped their panel would approve their measure, which seeks to overhaul security at federal and private laboratories that work with the world's deadliest biological agents and toxins.
The bill is intended to implement recommendations from a congressionally chartered commission, which concluded in December that security at U.S. bio-labs is woefully inadequate.
But action on the bill hit a roadblock when Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and George Voinovich, R-Ohio, objected to marking it up.
Levin said it would be a mistake to approve the bill without consulting key agencies, such as HHS, Defense Department, National Security Council and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
He said he feared the bill would create conflicting regulations, adding he was concerned it would put the Homeland Security Department in charge of security at labs instead of HHS.
Levin also said the Obama administration is close to finishing an interagency review of issues the bill seeks to address, so the committee should wait for those results.
"I think it is premature without getting agency response to this bill," Levin said. "We can't just proceed in a way which would increase the risk by creating confusing complications where none are necessary."
Collins said the committee sought comment from the administration but received incomplete responses.
"The administration has told us that we cannot expect concrete legislative proposals until at least next summer. That would mean 18 months before there's legislation brought to us," she said. "It will be three years before regulations are in place and, in the meantime, we know our country is at risk of a biological attack or chemical weapons being used in a terrorist attack."
Lieberman said he and Collins talked by phone late Tuesday with John Brennan, who is President Obama's homeland security adviser. Lieberman said Brennan appeared to accept that a bill would be voted out of committee and then a more detailed consultation would occur.
"There's no question that there's a turf concern," Lieberman added. "The whole aim here is to deconflict the agencies."
Ultimately, though, the committee did not have a quorum to vote on the bill and Lieberman did not press the issue.
He said he hopes to resume marking up the bill next week and would formally ask Brennan to seek advice from various agencies before then.
Congress Daily 10-28-09
We wonder how long it will take to enact an illegal decree in Fiji to address these issues, tick tock.
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