[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 153 (Thursday, September 25, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1982]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          EARMARK DECLARATION

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                            HON. STEVE KING

                                of iowa

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 24, 2008

  Mr. KING of Iowa.  Madam Speaker, I wish to make the following 
disclosure in accordance with the new Republican Earmark Transparency 
Standards requiring Members to place a statement in the Congressional 
Record for a bill that includes earmarks they have requested, 
describing how the funds will be spent and justifying the use of 
federal taxpayer funds.
  Requesting Member: Congressman Steve King.
  Bill Number: H.R. 2638, The Consolidated Security, Disaster 
Assitance, and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2009.
  Account: Rdte, DW; 75 Cbdp 0603884Bp, Chemical And Biological Defense 
Program.
  Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Hematech, Inc.
  Address of Requesting Entity: 4401 South Technology Drive, Sioux 
Falls, SD 57106.
  Description of Request: U.S. warfighters and civilians may 
potentially face numerous biological threats, including anthrax, 
requiring development of broad-based therapeutics with adequate long-
term storage options. The military needs U.S. companies to produce 
large quantities of therapeutics as countermeasures for many different 
biological agents, such as bacteria, viruses and biotoxins. 
Accordingly, the $1.6 million allocated for Biological Threat Antibody 
Research will be used by the grantee, Hematech, Inc. of Sioux Falls, SD 
and its partner, Trans Ova Genetics, LLC of Sioux Center, Iowa for a 
project involving preclinical evaluation of a novel human anti-anthrax 
polyclonal therapeutic. Hematech has developed a novel system for 
production of high potency human polyclonal antibodies which can be 
used to develop therapeutics to address many biological threats 
including bacteria, viruses, toxins and, importantly, combinations of 
agents. The companies believe that this polyclonal production system 
could be broadly applicable for protecting soldiers and civilians 
against biological weapons. I am advised that various federal agencies 
have shown interest in Hematech's novel system and have provided 
ongoing partial support, technical assistance and expert guidance. I am 
further advised that their collaborations with agencies in both the DOD 
and HHS have been extraordinarily successful and the company is now 
prepared to move to the next level of product development. The funds 
will help the companies perform preclinical studies during Fiscal Year 
2009, evaluating whether the human polyclonal production platform is 
functioning effectively and setting the stage for submissions to 
governmental authorities such as the Food and Drug Administration. The 
companies have already contributed several million dollars of their own 
resources to get this promising technology to this point and the 
requested DOD funds will permit the advanced development process to 
begin.
  Requesting Member: Congressman Steve King.
  Bill Number: H.R. 2638, The Consolidated Security, Disaster 
Assitance, and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2009.
  Account: Op, A--Other Procurement, Army; 027--Navstar Global 
Positioning System (Space)
  Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Rockwell Collins, Inc
  Address of Requesting Entity: 400 Collins Rd, NE, Cedar Rapids, IA 
52498
  Description of Request: The Defense Advanced GPS Receiver (DAGR) is 
the most sophisticated and capable GPS receiver of its class in the 
world. Most importantly, in addition to enhanced anti jam capabilities, 
the DAGR also has a new Maps feature allowing the Warfighter to 
download and display Maps for improved battlefield situation awareness. 
There is an urgent need to deploy these totally new capabilities within 
Army to enhance the war fighter's support of the global war on 
terrorism. The DAGR's capability allows the user to display relative 
position (blue force versus red force) on the battlefield with other 
DAGR networked receivers. The basic need is for the U.S. war fighter to 
fully participate in military operations where orders, intelligence, 
and other combat information are distributed in digital form. In 
addition, a situational awareness capability will make the dismounted 
soldier a more lethal and survivable entity on the battlefield, and 
will make the entire force more proactive. Integrating all of these 
capabilities provides the below battalion level soldier with 
unprecedented tactical awareness and makes the war-fighter extremely 
proactive. Now that the DAGR is currently being fielded, there is no 
need for the DoD to purchase jamming susceptible commercial GPS 
receivers. In addition, the DAGR is fully backwards-compatible with the 
PLGR and is fully functional with existing vehicle or other platform 
Army critical interfaces. Also, the enhanced mapping feature 
functionality has been fully developed to interface with both DoD and 
commercial map databases including images viewing from satellites or 
other such images. In addition, to date over 180,000 DAGR units have 
been successfully delivered to the U.S. Army. However, additionally 
funding is needed to improve and develop a existing DAGR radio 
communication link software toward a situation awareness point solution 
for the war-fighter.
  It is recognized that there is a need for more DAGRs to supplement 
the ones that our war fighters have in the field and also the need for 
situational awareness capability for the individual soldier in order to 
harness battlefield information and operate the radios and position/
navigation system (DAGR), thereby enabling the soldier to be more 
efficient and effective in combat. The funding I requested added an 
additional $2 Million to the FY 09 budget request for this line, 
NAVSTAR GPS, for the procurement of an additional 1,200 DAGRs. With 
these funds, which provide for the additional number of fielded DAGRs, 
the war-fighter will get an unprecedented low-cost situational 
awareness solution that's greater than the sum of its parts at 
battalionand-below levels.




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