[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 29 (Thursday, February 15, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E363-E364]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             PROJECT BIOSHIELD MATERIAL THREATS ACT OF 2007

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                         HON. JAMES R. LANGEVIN

                            of rhode island

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 15, 2007

  Mr. LANGEVIN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Project 
BioShield Material Threats Act of 2007.

[[Page E364]]

  The BioShield Program was created to develop and procure medical 
countermeasures against dangerous chemical, biological, radiological 
and nuclear (CBRN) agents, The Department of Homeland Security is 
responsible for determining threats posed to our country by these 
agents, and for taking specific steps to protect the nation's citizens 
from these harms. While I fully support the mission of BioShield, the 
program has encountered several problems since it was enacted nearly 
three years ago.
  One major shortcoming of the program is a lack of efficiency in the 
assessment of threats. Rather than examining each threat individually, 
we should be looking for ways to properly group these threats together, 
so we can develop appropriate countermeasures to combat multiple 
threats. My colleagues and I are introducing this legislation to 
improve and expedite the Department's conduct of Material Threat 
Determinations (MTD) and the more in-depth Material Threat Assessments 
(MTA). These MTDs and MTAs will promote a more strategic use of our 
Nation's resources when procuring medical countermeasures and will 
ultimately lead to a safer and better-prepared public health 
infrastructure.
  To date, DHS has completed fifteen MTDs. It took well over one year 
to complete the first six, but the pace picked up considerably since a 
shift towards less in-depth risk assessments of twenty-nine top threat 
agents listed by the Centers for Disease Control. The Department 
leveraged those risk assessments to more quickly complete the next 
round of MTDs. Soon the Department plans another round of risk 
assessments that will include more chemical agents. I hope this bill 
sends a clear message to the Department that we in Congress want to 
support and improve upon their recent efforts.
  Risk is assessed based on a combination of threat, vulnerability, and 
consequences, and we should encourage the Department to use threat 
information contained in existing risk assessments to inform and 
expedite the MTD/MTA process. This bill promotes the use of existing 
risk assessments if those assessments are considered credible by the 
Secretary.
  Another way to both accelerate and leverage assessments is to conduct 
them in groups, either by the physical or genetic similarity of the 
agents themselves or the symptoms they cause. Countermeasures that 
address more than one threat agent are commonly referred to as ``broad 
spectrum medical countermeasures,'' and these should be the gold 
standard for efficient use of BioShield resources. We must move beyond 
the current ``One Bug, One Drug'' approach we currently use to the 
``One Drug for Many Bugs'' model that broad spectrum countermeasures 
offer.

  Finally, we all know that time is of the essence as we work to 
address those agents we already know and ensure we are prepared for 
emerging threats. The legislation I am introducing today requires all 
MTDs for CBRN agents that the Secretary determines to be capable of 
significantly affecting national security to be completed by December 
31, 2007.
  Madam Speaker, this bill will aid the Department of Homeland Security 
in conducting threat and risk assessments, which is the first step to 
countermeasure procurement. We must address those agents--known and 
emerging, natural or engineered--that present the highest risk to our 
citizens, and we must do it quickly. Passage of this measure will help 
advance and improve that process, and I urge my colleagues to join me 
in supporting this legislation.

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