[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 19 (Thursday, February 28, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H638-H640]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   APPOINTMENT OF CONFEREES ON H.R. 3448, PUBLIC HEALTH SECURITY AND 
                   BIOTERRORISM RESPONSE ACT OF 2001

  Mr. TAUZIN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the 
Speaker's table the bill (H.R. 3448) to improve the ability of the 
United States to prevent, prepare for, and respond to bioterrorism and 
other public health emergencies, with Senate amendments thereto, 
disagree to the Senate amendments, and agree to the conference asked by 
the Senate.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Simpson). Is there objection to the 
request of the gentleman from Louisiana?
  There was no objection.


                Motion to Instruct Offered by Ms. Eshoo

  Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, I offer a motion to instruct conferees.
  The Clerk read as follows:
       Ms. Eshoo moves that the managers on the part of the House 
     at the conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses 
     on the amendment of the Senate to the bill H.R. 3448 be 
     instructed--
       (1) to work diligently to reconcile the differences between 
     the two Houses in order to promote public health security and 
     address potential bioterrorist threats;
       (2) to recognize that Federal resources to combat 
     bioterrorism and other public health emergencies have been 
     increased through recent appropriations bills, to enhance 
     preparedness and response to bioterrorism and other public 
     health emergencies for fiscal year 2002, and that the 
     managers on the part of the House should be careful not to 
     disrupt or delay this much needed funding for fiscal year 
     2002;
       (3) to recognize the pressing need to establish a national 
     system for tracking the possession and use of deadly 
     biological agents;
       (4) to recognize the need to prioritize Federal and State 
     resources to address potential threats to the food supply;
       (5) to acknowledge the need to work with the Administration 
     to ensure feasibility of enhanced food safety regulatory 
     programs; and
       (6) to provide for vulnerability assessments, emergency 
     response plans, and other actions with respect to public 
     drinking water supplies.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman from California (Ms. Eshoo) 
will be recognized for 30 minutes and the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. 
Tauzin) will be recognized for 30 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Eshoo).
  Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I might consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise this morning in support of this motion of the 
House bill and emphasize the need for conferees to address and quickly 
resolve their differences on the bioterrorism legislation.
  We live in unsettling times. Our hope is that we never again 
experience an act of terrorism, but we have to plan and prepare to 
respond to further attacks. The conferees face a complex task. The 
bills passed by the House and Senate cover many subjects including 
grants to our first responders, regulation of select agents, protection 
of our food supply, and protection of our water systems.
  The motion recognizes the need for conferees to coordinate the final 
legislation with ongoing efforts to support existing plans and 
programs. Bioterrorist threats and public health emergencies can come 
in many forms, in many places; and the House bill is sensitive to that 
fact. We want an aggressive response to this problem.
  Title I of H.R. 3448 provides a funding structure that focuses 
resources towards first responders with a minimum of delay and with 
maximum efficiency. This bill is a down payment, not a full measure of 
what will be needed for our citizens and our community to prevent, 
prepare for, and respond to terrorist attacks.
  Title III of H.R. 3448, the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism 
Response Act of 2001 which we overwhelmingly passed on December 11, 
2001, establishes important new regulatory authorities for the 
protection of our Nation's food supply. These new authorities enable 
the Food and Drug Administration to allocate its limited inspection 
resources more effectively where they are needed the most, at the ports 
of entry into the United States. In addition, the bill authorizes the 
appropriations of new funds for increased inspections of food, the 
development of rapid testing technologies, and an assessment of threats 
for the adulteration of food.

                              {time}  1030

  Along with improving FDA's information management systems as they 
pertain to imported food, the bill mandates that FDA notify relevant 
States when it has information indicating that a shipment of food 
presents a threat of serious adverse health consequences and requests 
that such States take appropriate remedial action.
  Mr. Speaker, this is a motion on which I would expect all of my 
colleagues would agree. The bill passed the House by a vote of 418 to 
2, and I believe my colleagues are unified in their desire to pass this 
legislation as soon as possible, and I urge them to do that.
  I would also like to add that, as we have emphasized, a good part of 
the legislation is built around first responders, that what they will 
have in their hands, the tools that they will use, represent the best 
of the biotechnology industry of our country, the technology industry 
and high technology, both of which find a home in the 14th 
Congressional District of California. So America's best will be placed 
in America's best hands as first responders. I am very proud of that, 
and I know that my colleagues are as well.

[[Page H639]]

  Mr. Speaker, I thank all of my colleagues for the work that has been 
done on one of the most important bills that the House of 
Representatives will pass.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. TAUZIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the motion offered by my dear 
friend and colleague, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Eshoo), a 
valued member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and thank her 
for this motion.
  This motion is obviously to instruct the conferees on H.R. 3448, the 
other Tauzin-Dingell bill, the Tauzin-Dingell Public Health Security 
and Bioterrorism Response Act; and also I want to, obviously, thank the 
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell), the ranking member of the 
Committee on Energy and Commerce, for again an extraordinary bipartisan 
effort to do what I think is something awfully important and necessary 
for our country.
  As the gentlewoman explained, this bill came out of the Committee on 
Energy and Commerce in December and passed the House by 418 to 2, again 
a remarkable expression of the concern all Members have on both sides 
of the aisle for protecting America from these chemical and 
bioterrorism attacks. I believe that now we have to work even more 
diligently to reconcile the differences between our House-passed bill 
and the bill the Senate eventually passed in late December and go to a 
conference and get this bill accomplished as quickly as possible.
  At its core, H.R. 3448 is about the safety and about the security of 
our country, a country that is now faced with profound new threats of 
terrorism and public health emergencies. Increasing Federal resources 
available to identify, to prevent, to deter and to respond to threats 
of bioterrorism is probably the most important thing we can do now in 
improving our readiness to face an enemy that is now here at home and 
threatens a free and prosperous society.
  For fiscal year 2002 we have already addressed increasing the funding 
to combat bioterrorism through appropriations bills and by 
administrative actions. We must be careful not to disrupt or delay this 
very much needed funding by unnecessarily imposing substantial new 
requirements on the grants or the funding for fiscal year 2002. We must 
also enact a strong framework that combines smart, innovative policy 
with these additional resources to prepare our country for these 
bioterrorism threats, to improve our abilities to respond, as the 
gentlewoman said, quickly and efficiently if, in fact, those threats 
not only arise but are carried out as many predict al Qaeda and other 
members are still attempting to do.
  Title I of the House-passed bill is intended to step up our 
preparedness and our capacity to identify and respond to these kinds of 
threats. The title will improve communications between and among the 
levels of government, public health officials, first responders, the 
health care providers and the facilities that must obviously take care 
of victims in the case of those emergencies.
  As we work to reconcile the House- and Senate-passed bills, we must 
also enhance the controls on deadly biological agents in order to help 
prevent bioterrorism, establish a national database on dangerous 
pathogens. Even today we do not have a national system in place for 
tracking the possession and use of the anthrax that has already killed 
and injured citizens and continues to pose a threat to our national and 
economic security and public health and welfare, not to mention the 
lives of our postal workers and others in our society who are 
threatened by such an attack.
  Title II of the House-passed bill imposes new registration 
requirements on all the possessors of the 36 most dangerous biological 
agents and toxins. It mandates tough new safety and security 
requirements to ensure that only legitimate scientists working in 
appropriate laboratory facilities can gain access to these potential 
weapons of mass personal destruction.
  Title III of the House bill protects the food and drug supplies by 
increasing Food and Drug Administration resources to hire more 
inspectors at the border where so little of our food is inspected and 
by providing additional authority for the FDA to detain food and to 
investigate credible evidence of contamination and to improve access to 
records to assist in investigating any threats to our food supplies.
  Finally, we must recognize the need to provide for the vulnerability 
assessments, emergency response plans and other actions with respect to 
public drinking water supplies. All of us should pay special attention 
to what is happening in Rome where tunnels were found and suspects 
arrested who had materials on hand designed to infect the water 
supplies of the Americans who work in our embassy there and could 
possibly have poisoned them and damaged them or hurt them or killed 
them. That single incident in Rome ought to stand as a stock warning to 
everyone in this country that it can happen here, too, if we are not 
careful.
  Title IV of the House-passed bill requires a comprehensive review of 
the ways to detect and respond to chemical, biological, radiological 
contamination of drinking water, as well as ways to prevent and 
mitigate the effects of physical attacks upon those assets.
  Again, I want to thank the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell) and 
the members of the Committee on Energy and Commerce on both sides of 
the aisle for their tireless, extraordinary efforts to produce H.R. 
3448. Once again, the House led the Senate in getting this legislation 
passed, but the Senate has done its job, too, now, and we need to 
reconcile the differences between the legislation.
  I look forward to working expeditiously with the House and Senate 
managers to resolve those differences so this country can quickly get a 
strong public health security and bioterrorism response bill to the 
President's desk, not just this year but hopefully by the time we 
conclude in another month. We ought to get this thing done not in 
months but in days and weeks, and we ought to put it on the President's 
desk so the country can have the benefit of this kind of security.
  I urge my colleagues to support this motion and commend the 
gentlewoman for presenting it to the House.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I would like to congratulate the chairman of our committee for the 
extraordinary work that has been done on this bill and to the gentleman 
from Michigan (Mr. Dingell) our ranking member.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. 
Jackson-Lee).
  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to revise 
and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Eshoo) for her leadership on this issue and her energy 
on the Committee on Energy and Commerce and also on the Homeland 
Security Task Force.
  I thank the chairman and the ranking member of this full committee 
and stand to support this legislation, particularly as it relates to 
authorizing funding to develop antidote drugs in case of attacks, 
grants for emergency preparedness, aid to hospitals and other health 
and food programs.
  This bill, along with the Justice Department reauthorization bill, 
H.R. 2215, is expected to deal with issues of terrorism, and of course, 
all of us are singularly committed to fighting against terrorism but 
also protecting the homeland.
  I am particularly gratified that this legislation will help us 
stockpile vaccines and drugs, strengthen public health systems and 
promote other efforts to defend against biological attacks. We must 
reconcile the Senate bill with what we are attempting to do.
  What I like about this legislation is it expands the role of the 
Centers for Disease Control. Many of us visited the Centers for Disease 
Control right after the September 11 tragic incident and right after 
the anthrax, and we saw there was great need in reinforcing its fund, 
reinforcing its expanse, because it relates to the public health system 
and also giving it money to help restore its physical plant. This is a 
very important aspect of this legislation.
  As the chair of the Congressional Children's Caucus, let me say how 
glad

[[Page H640]]

I am that we have established the National Task Force on Children and 
Terrorism and the Emergency Public Information Communications Task 
Force. One of the greater or silent victims of September 11 was all of 
the children that were impacted by terrorism.
  I am interested also in the funding source, and I might raise this, I 
am concerned with first responders and local government. If someone 
comes out of local government, I am a former city council member, and I 
would like to make sure that those dollars get to the first responders 
and local governments. I know that we are dealing with block grants, 
and if I might put on the Record that it is very important that our 
mayors and county commissioners and those who are first responders are 
the ones that actually get those dollars.
  I hope as we are resolving this legislation that we can assure that 
the ground firefighters and police and the emergency paramedics and 
hospitals get those dollars. As I met with those groups in my own 
congressional district, I can assure my colleagues that that is an 
important issue to us.
  As I close, let me say that in my community we are establishing a 
biomedical center. Also, NASA is very much involved in biomedicine, and 
I believe we have a lot of good collaborators that can work with us on 
this issue, and I simply hope that, as we work together on these 
particular issues, we will make sure that those dollars get to those 
who need it.
  Finally, might I say the food safety and security is extremely 
important. I do not know if we realize that the food supply of our farm 
animals even, the seed, needs to be protected, because that then 
generates into a potential for devastation among our population.
  I rise again to ask support for this legislation, hope in conference 
some of my concerns will be addressed.
  Mr. TAUZIN. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Shimkus) from the Committee on Energy and 
Commerce who played an instrumental role in fashioning the very 
important frame upon which H.R. 3448 was built and who will be joining 
us on the conference committee with the Senate.
  Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. 
Tauzin) for yielding me the time. I appreciate the ranking member and 
this motion to recommit, and I want to associate with my colleague, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).
  On Monday I met with over 150 firefighters as they tried to figure 
out how to competitively complete work on the fire grant acts and try 
to get up to snuff to be able to respond. Of great concern to them is 
responding to bioterrorism. And I am a Federalist, I believe in Federal 
responsibilities and local responsibilities, but this new world, there 
is something new that has emerged.
  We have a responsibility if we want to rely on these people to 
respond to these great crises that could face our country. They have to 
be trained. They have to be equipped. They have to be able to be there. 
Because no matter, as an Army officer, no matter how we drop in a field 
medical office, those firefighters, those police officers, those local 
sheriffs are going to be there and they better be equipped and trained 
and be able to perform the mission, not only them but our local 
hospitals.
  This whole health care debate and the changing from hospital rooms, I 
think now there is a big gap. If there is a great crisis, where are 
these sick people going to go? How are we going to be able to respond? 
So the local hospitals, the community health clinics and those things 
are just critical, and I know this is a way that we are going to try to 
wrestle out some of those problems and get a way that we can help the 
local responders, and I am honored to be able to serve on the 
conference.
  I look forward to working hard.
  Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers; and I yield back 
the balance of my time.
  Mr. TAUZIN. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers; and I yield back 
the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Simpson). Without objection, the 
previous question is ordered on the motion to instruct.
  There was no objection.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion to instruct 
offered by the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Eshoo).
  The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that 
the ayes appeared to have it.
  Mr. TAUZIN. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further 
proceedings on this motion will be postponed.

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