Tom Harkin: “earlier today, on behalf of myself, Senators Kennedy, Reid, Durbin, Obama, Bayh, Kohl, Mikulski, Clinton, Johnson…”

“earlier today, on behalf of myself, Senators Kennedy, Reid, Durbin, Obama, Bayh, Kohl, Mikulski, Clinton, Johnson, Dayton, and Byrd, I laid down an amendment dealing with preparing this country for an avian flu pandemic. The amendment that we laid down today and that we will be voting on tomorrow will allow the United States to dramatically step up preparation for an avian flu pandemic. Last month, I offered and the Senate approved an amendment to the Defense appropriations bill that provided $3.9 billion for preparation for such a pandemic. At that time, there was some discussion as to why we were putting it on the Defense bill; it should go on the Labor- Health and Human Services bill. At that time, we didn't even know if we would have this bill up. Well, the bill is in the Chamber, and this amendment appropriately belongs on this legislative vehicle in our jurisdiction. So the amendment that was laid down that I offered earlier today is essentially a more robust version of that earlier amendment again based on more and better information we have obtained since that time. There is a broad consensus in the scientific community as to the steps we need to take to get ready for a potential pandemic. Reflecting that scientific consensus, the amendment we have laid down will do four broad things. First, as our first line of defense, it will dramatically step up international surveillance of avian flu outbreaks overseas.…”