Biological emergences: Incremental progress not enough
The Panel determined that the government could achieve these actions in one, three, or five years. It directed each item toward the White House, a department or agency within the Executive Branch, the Congress, or a combination of these. Today’s report provides an assessment of how much progress has been made in implementing the short-term, one-year action items.
Of the forty-six actions expected to be acted upon within one year, only two were completed, and seventeen saw partial action, leaving twenty-seven unaddressed. The most significant positive development was that Congress included the requirement for a comprehensive national biodefense strategy in the just-passed National Defense Authorization Act of 2017.
The majority of the recommendations required action by the White House or by the departments and agencies that comprise the Executive Branch. The single most important, given the absence of centralized coordination, was for the president to appoint the vice president as the leader of federal biodefense efforts. This is the single best action the Administration can take to resolve the continued challenges in biodefense.
Panel Co-Chair Senator Joe Lieberman stated, “Our call for the Vice President to be the leader of federal biodefense efforts may be unconventional, but other efforts to date simply have not worked. To ensure the mission receives proper oversight and authority, the nation needs the overarching leadership of the Vice President.”
Lieberman added, “Alone, each of our recommendations facilitates some degree of positive change. However, together, they provide a blueprint for biodefense capable of addressing twenty-first century biological threats and meeting public expectations of the government to deal with them. We urge the incoming administration and Congress to review and implement our recommendations in their entirety.”
The report concludes by calling upon the next president to institutionalize leadership of biodefense at the White House in the Office of the Vice President, and calling upon Congress to establish a joint oversight agenda for biodefense.
Lieberman noted that in its November 2016 letter to President Obama, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology detailed recommendations to the President that were either consistent with, or the same as, those made by the Panel.
“As Panel Members of the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense, we remain committed to addressing the biological threat,” said Governor Ridge. “We look forward to collaborating with the White House, Congress, federal government, and private sector on this urgent issue. In the coming year, we will continue to assess implementation, examine pressing topics, and address new issues demanding attention.”
In addition to the requirement for a comprehensive national biodefense strategy in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2017, Congress also recently advanced several other legislative proposals to meet a number of the Panel’s recommendations, including the 21st Century Cures Act and the First Responder Anthrax Preparedness Act.
