[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 158 (Thursday, November 15, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11941-S11942]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. BOND:
  S. 1705. A bill to amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for 
the establishment of a homeland security academic centers for public 
health preparedness network; to the Committee on Health, Education, 
Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce a bill I call the 
``The Homefront Medical Preparedness Act.''
  In the past century we have witnessed unprecedented advances in 
science, technology and medicine and have seen limitless potential to 
improve the human condition, cure disease, and advance human health in 
ways that were once unimaginable. Yet, at the same time we have seen 
some of these very advances have spawned new threats, threats that were 
simply inconceivable 100 years ago. The recent outbreaks of anthrax in 
Florida, New York City, and Washington, DC, coupled with the terrorist 
attack of September 11 have brought to light the compelling need to 
properly prepare our communities for the threat of bioterrorists 
attacks.
  A strong public-health infrastructure is the best defense against any 
bioterrorism attack. As a Nation we remain highly vulnerable, not 
because we are unprepared, but because we are under-prepared. The 
Department of Health and Human Services has made tremendous advances 
over the past few years. However, while significant progress has been 
made, there are still large gaps in our current approach. Our goal must 
be to eliminate these gaps and reduce the risk to our Nation and our 
communities. As a nation, we must prepare our communities, and improve 
our capacity to respond. Central to an effective response to a 
bioterrorist attack are detection, treatment and containment of a 
disease epidemic and our Nation's public-health system is on the front 
line in this effort.
  The Nation's public health system is a complex network of people, 
systems, and organizations working at the local, State and national 
levels. The Nation is served by more then 3,000 county and city health 
departments, more than 3,000 local boards of health, 59 State and 
territorial-health departments, tribal-health departments more than 
160,000 public and private laboratories. Current estimates suggest that 
the public-health workforce includes 500,000 professionals employed at 
the local, State and national levels. According to the Health Resource 
and Services Administration in 1989 only 44 percent of these 500,000 
workers had formal, academic training in public health and those with 
graduate public health degrees were an even smaller fraction. As of 
1997, 78 percent of local health departments executives did not have 
graduate degrees in public health. Changes on the public health system 
have brought new demands on the workforce and identified a need for 
additional training and education. Many public-health workers do not 
have the necessary skills and knowledge base to meet the needs of the 
emerging public-health system and public-health threats. These 
statistics highlight the critical need to provide these professionals 
with the most up-to-date training, technology, and tools necessary to 
meet the increasing demands and emerging needs.
  An important first step has already been taken. The Centers for 
Disease Control has created Centers for Public Health Preparedness 
across the country. There are currently 14 centers total: 7 Academic 
Centers, 4 Speciality Centers, and 3 Local Exemplar Centers. The 
Academic Centers link schools of public health, State and local-health 
agencies and other academic and community health partners to foster 
individual preparedness on the front line. The Speciality Centers focus 
on a topic, professional discipline, core public-health competency, 
practice setting or application of learning technology. And finally, 
the Local Exemplar Centers develop advanced applications at the 
community level in three areas of key importance to preparedness for 
bioterrorism and other urgent health threats: integrated communications 
and information systems across multiple sectors; advanced operational 
readiness assessment; and comprehensive training and evaluation.

  In Missouri we are fortunate to have not one, but two centers in St. 
Louis at St. Louis University School of Public Health: an Academic 
Center the Heartland Center for Public Health Preparedness as well as a 
Speciality Center The Center for the Study of Bioterrorism and Emerging 
Threats. The School of Public Health at St. Louis University has 
clearly been on the forefront of this issue. I was honored to have 
secured Federal appropriations dollars necessary for startup costs for 
the Center for the Study of Bioterrorism, the only specialty center 
with a primary focus on bioterrorism in the country. The center 
provides public-healthcare providers and healthcare facilities with the 
tools needed for preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation of 
intentional or naturally occurring outbreaks. Under the leadership of 
Dr. Evans, the center has developed training curriculum that is being 
used nationwide to train healthcare providers and public-health 
departments. In fact, the center's training materials were used by the 
CDC to train emergency health personal, healthcare providers and other 
public-health workers in New York to respond to the September 11 
attack.
  But more can and must be done. Today I introduced legislation which 
will expand the national network of Centers of Public Health 
Preparedness by adding new centers across the country as well as 
funneling more valuable resources to existing centers to meet urgent, 
public-health training needs. This bill will authorize $50 million and 
would instruct the Director of the Centers for Disease Control to 
establish a

[[Page S11942]]

national network of Centers for Public Health Preparedness utilizing 
the existing Centers for Public Health Preparedness Program to train 
and to prepare the national public-health workforce, healthcare 
providers and the general public to respond to bioterrorist threats.
  Each center, housed at an accredited school of public health will 1. 
provide training and education to local and state health department 
staff, emergency first responders, and primary and acute care providers 
on the best practices necessary to protect against, and respond to the 
array of potential threats facing the American public, including 
bioterrorism, infectious disease and weapons of mass destruction; 2. 
provide information to healthcare [providers and other components of 
the healthcare industry to protect against and respond to the threat of 
bioterrorism, infectious disease and weapons of mass destruction; and 
3. provide information and education on relevant bioterrorist threats 
to the public.
  Under my legislation each center, both new and existing, will receive 
at least $1 million per year, but may receive additional sums per year 
if the CDC deems additional resources are necessary to carry out 
regional or national training activities at a particular center.
  I believe that our schools of pubic health across the country, 
working in conjunction with the CDC can provide training and education 
to local and State health department staff, emergency first responders, 
and primary and acute-care providers on the best practices necessary to 
protect against, identify and respond to the wide array of potential 
threats facing the American public, including bioterrorism, infectious 
disease and weapons of mass destruction. The capacity and competency of 
our healthcare workforce is a critical component of the basic public-
health infrastructure necessary to protect our communities. As with our 
military, our public-health system must be prepared at all times to 
ward off threats and respond to crises. Our national public-health 
infrastructure is the first and in some cases the only line of defense. 
Like our military, our public-health system must be at a constant state 
of readiness nationwide and this legislation will enable our public 
health system to better achieve this goal. If the public-health system 
is fully prepared then communities across the country will be better 
protected.
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