Saxby Chambliss: “as someone who spent several years working on issues of terrorism and advocating better preparedness and readiness to…”

“as someone who spent several years working on issues of terrorism and advocating better preparedness and readiness to meet the unique challenges we face from terrorists who want to harm Americans, I am very pleased with the final agreement on this bill. It is clear that we continue to face very real threats from sophisticated terrorists who would use dangerous biological agents in their savage and relentless efforts to carry out acts of violence against Americans. We must do all we can to keep dangerous biological agents out of the wrong hands. However, whether in response to a terrorist attack, accident or natural outbreak of infectious disease, our public health and disease surveillance system is not as robust and capable as it needs to be to meet the demands which will be placed on it in a severe public health emergency. We recognize that local officials and our doctors, police, firefighters and local emergency responders will be on the front lines of an attack, and we must make sure that they are trained and ready to respond. This bill will address many of these concerns. A critically important provision taken from the bill authored by the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Linder), the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Harman) and myself will provide $300 million per year and multi-year contracting authority to the Centers for Disease Control to upgrade and modernize their old and decaying facilities which are in desperate need of repair.”