*EPF509 04/19/2002
Senator Akaka Urges Action on Bills to Fight Bioterrorism
(Bills would strengthen detection capability, preparedness) (590)

By Steve La Rocque
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Senator Daniel Akaka (Democrat of Hawaii) took to the floor of the Senate April 16 to urge action on two bills he introduced into the Senate to help the United States prepare for possible bioterrorism attacks.

Akaka is a member of six Senate committees: the Armed Services Committee; the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee; the Energy and Natural Resources Committee; the Governmental Affairs Committee; the Veterans' Affairs Committee; and the Select Committee on Ethics.

As chairman of the Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on International Security, Proliferation, and Federal Services, Akaka has taken a leading role in various national security areas.

In July 2001, Akaka held a hearing in which representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services discussed activities underway by federal employees to prepare communities "for a biological crisis."

On October 17, 2001, he co-chaired a joint subcommittee/Governmental Affairs Commmittee hearing to discuss further the public health implications of bioterrorism. Akaka noted that, coincidentally, the second hearing was held "on the same day the Hart Senate Office Building was shut down because of the anthrax attack."

From those hearings, Akaka said, senators learned that while the U.S. Government "is not unprepared" to deal with bioterrorism, America as a whole is underprepared.

Preparedness levels are not uniform or consistent across the United States," he said.

In an effort to alleviate this problem, the Hawaiian lawmaker sponsored S. 1560 and S. 1561 in October 2001. He called on fellow senators April 16 to sign on as co-sponsors of the two bills.

S. 1560, the Biological Agent-Environmental Detection Act, would strengthen U.S. capabilities to detect biological agents in the environment and to monitor biological agents. According to Akaka, the measure would increase efforts "to develop the necessary tools to minimize the impact of bioterrorism by reducing the number of people exposed and alerting authorities and medical personnel to a threat before symptoms occur."

Current methods are "not adequate to monitor the air, water, and food supply continuously in order to detect rapidly the presence of biological agents," he warned. According to Akaka, the proposed Biological Agent-Environmental Detection Act would establish an "interagency task force to coordinate public-private research in environmental monitoring and detection tools of bioterrorist agents."

The bill was referred to the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

S. 1561 would strengthen the preparedness of health care providers in the Veterans' Affairs Department and local hospitals to respond to bioterrorism through expanded National Disaster Medical System training programs.

While most federal resources being devoted to respond to weapons of mass destruction have focused on what are called "first-line responders" such as fire fighters, police, and emergency medical services personnel, that bill notes, there is a need to train medical technicians, nurses and doctors as part of "a critical line of defense against covert bioterrorism."

Under the proposed bill, Akaka said, there would be an expansion of the training partnership created in 2001 when Veterans' Affairs staff were made part of the National Disaster Medical System, and teamed up with personnel from the Department of Defense, Health and Human Services, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The proposed legislation would draw on established partnerships between the 173 Veterans' Affairs hospitals and community hospitals, and implement "a telemedicine and training program for local health care providers in bioterrorism preparedness and response," Akaka said.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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