Max Cleland: “I commend the committee's work to support very necessary research in the area of chemical and biological detection…”

“I commend the committee's work to support very necessary research in the area of chemical and biological detection, response and defense. I also applaud the committee's recognition that there are many existing good ideas as well as on-going initiatives worthy of consideration by the Department as it develops effective technologies for our Nation's chem.-bio defense. As you may know, one of these excellent efforts is a program that was initiated by the U.S. Marine Corps' Chemical Biological Incident Response Force, CBIRF, and authorized by the Senate in S. 2514. This program focuses on the development of emergency response technologies by first responders, the demonstration of a chemical agent warning network and the coordination of response among military and civilian assets. Will the Committee work to include in the list of programs to be considered under the Chem-bio Defense Initiatives Fund, this initiative to demonstrate a chemical agent warning network and other emergency response technologies for use by first response units?”