Biological weaponsHouse introduces new biological weapons legislation

Last Thursday lawmakers from the House Homeland Security Committee unveiled new legislation designed to help bolster federal efforts to prevent bioterror attacks and the use of other weapons of mass destruction.

Under the proposed bill, a new special assistant to the president for biodefense would be created. The position is tasked with guiding national efforts to combat biological threats and would coordinate federal agencies in crafting and executing strategic plans.

In particular, the special assistant would be responsible for creating a national strategy for biosurveillance, identifying data and distributing it to relevant federal agencies, spearheading information sharing initiatives across federal, state, and local law enforcement and public health agencies, and increasing the government’s ability to track and respond to a biological event.

The new position would replace DHS’s National Biosurveillance Integration Center, which was created in 2008 to detect biological incidents.

The bill comes in response to many of the recommendations made by the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, a panel created by Congress in 2009.

The commission found that the United States was currently unprepared for a WMD attack and gave the Obama administration an “F” on preparedness citing its failure to develop a comprehensive strategy to prevent and respond to a biological or chemical attack.

“Weapons of mass destruction create a risk of catastrophic consequence but they are of low probability,” said Representative Dan Lungren (R-California), the chairman of the Homeland Security Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Security Technologies Subcommittee.

“In such circumstances perhaps it’s not surprising complacency and inactivity are our biggest vulnerabilities,” he added.

Former Senator Jim Talent (R-Missouri), who co-chaired the WMD commission, welcomed the proposed bill and said current efforts are “not real time enough.”

“We cannot have confidence today we will know an attack has occurred within the period of time [needed] to respond,” he said.

Talent also pointed out that the new special assistant position was critical as someone “with clout and the ear of the president” needed to be in place to continue to spur the White House and Congress to address urgent WMD issues.

The legislation was formally introduced on Friday by Representatives Bill Pascrell (D – New Jersey) and Peter King (R – New York). The bill is called the “WMD Prevention and Preparedness Act of 2011” and Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Connecticut) says he plans to introduce a similar piece of legislation in the Senate soon.