We did an investigation of that and what happened, and then, working together, Senate Homeland Security and House Homeland Security, we passed, I think, a really strong reform bill in which we set out some standards.

this is not a threat that we are creating. This is real.

I think part of it, from my own experience in the Senate, is oversight and exposure when it doesn't exist.

It is startling when you think about it: 50 political appointees, Presidential appointees. This has accumulated over a long time.

We hope, as this hearing goes on, you will feel strongly enough about at least some of the recommendations we make here that you will become champions for them.

The biological threat is already out there. It is too late to get ahead of it, but we can still reduce our vulnerabilities and get ahead of its impact.

I want to thank you specifically for convening this hearing on our report less than a week after we issued it.

We had the technological ability. Why didn't we have it in place to warn us that this was happening?

the time has passed.

I am very proud of the report.

We owe it to them to have access to the vaccine.

It is a real shortcoming to create, through some Government involvement, incentives for the great pharmaceutical sector of our economy

There is a failure of imagination to suggest it can't happen. It is a failure of leadership to prepare people with the information needed to protect their constituencies and their communities if it does.

Local police departments need not only intelligence--they really do that--but they need the ability to analyze a potential biological attack as it is happening.

The greatest threats we have here are, it has been told to us over the past few years, home-grown violence extremists as well as domestic terrorists.

we really need to assume an international leadership role, perhaps through the World Health Organization but, really, probably on our own, to coordinate with other nations around the world.

We should do everything we can to eliminate this nascent state that they have created in parts of Iraq and Syria.

the answer has got to be: No, they are not ready.

It seems to me we have a Department of Homeland Security. The bioterrorist threat is a homeland security threat.

If I may, Dr. Cole's recommendation earlier about better training of health personnel around the country is critically important.

So I look forward to working with you the next year, as we go forward into the next Congress, to remedy this problem that, quite frankly, should have been fixed from Day 1.

We certainly have ways that we could apply pressure, fencing off funds and such, to really push this harder.

New York has set the standard post-9/11, for obvious reasons, and continues, I think, to do that.

Because the danger is clear, and it is present.

the threat is real. We had better act before the crisis occurs.