Mr. President, I rise today to give strong support to H.R. 3448, the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act. The nation is looking to Congress to provide the building blocks to prepare for and respond to bioterrorism. H.R. 3448 takes several good steps to coordinate and strengthen federal programs and help states and communities prepare for bioterrorism and other public health crises. As an original cosponsor of the Senate companion bill, I am proud to support the final product. The work that the bill managers and their staff have done in preparing this important legislation is to be commended.

H.R. 3448 provides $1.1 billion in funding for grants to state and local governments to prepare response plans, buy equipment, and train health care workers for bioterrorism and other public health emergencies, and an additional $520 million for community hospitals. The Act authorizes funding and establishes safety procedures for scientists to use pathogens for vaccine and disease research. H.R. 3448 builds up many of the nation's resources that have been weakened from years of neglect and also addresses several new concerns.

Early detection of a biological threat is critical in minimizing the number of people exposed to an agent and the extent that the agent or disease will spread. New tools capable of detecting small quantities of infectious agents in food, water, air and other vectors are needed. For this reason, I introduced S. 1560, the Biological Agent-Environmental Detection Act of 2001. I am pleased to see provisions of my bill included in H.R. 3448, especially the authorization of funding to improve testing, verification, and calibrating of new detection and surveillance techniques and tools. Scientists and engineers in our universities and national labs are conducting exciting research on air and water monitoring and developing satellite-based remote sensing technologies to identify weather patterns that contribute to the spread of infectious disease and biological or chemical attacks. I am convinced that these men and women can develop robust, effective, and accurate detection methods. Creating a critical line of defense against bioterrorism must involve health care professionals. Through hearings and discussions with health care providers and bioterrorism experts, it is clear that our doctors and nurses are not trained to recognize or respond to bioterrorism. For this reason, Senator Rockefeller and I introduced S. 1561, Strengthening Bioterrorism Preparedness Through Expanded National Disaster Medical System Training Programs. I am pleased that H.R. 3448 includes our proposal to use the existing emergency communication infrastructure, disaster training program, and community partnerships within the nation's 163 Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals to train VA and Department of Defense staff and local health care providers in recognizing and treating victims of biological weapons.

This is but one way in which the Department of Veterans Affairs serves the nation in bioterrorism preparedness and public health. The $133 million dedicated to VA will expand these efforts and is well deserved.

Congress has not forgotten the role our local and community hospitals will play in such a crisis. We also are working to give our medical professionals, public health officials, and emergency managers the earliest possible warning of pending outbreaks. The problems we face with bioterrorism are not new, nor are they related solely to bioterrorism. Our hospitals lack the capacity to handle even a handful of extra patients during flu season, let alone hundreds of people seeking critical care during an intentional epidemic. Passing the "Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act" is only the first step in making America safer. Now we can provide the hard working men and women in public service, academia, and private industry with the resources needed to continue protecting this country from bioterrorism.