Tom Harkin: “Absolutely. I thank the Senator. He is a very thoughtful individual and chairman of the Bioterrorism Subcommittee on…”

“Absolutely. I thank the Senator. He is a very thoughtful individual and chairman of the Bioterrorism Subcommittee on which I sit. He has given a thoughtful response. I respect that. I think there is a certain logic to what the Senator has said. I might use the phrase ``seductive logic,'' because obviously there is a lot more out there than just this. I respond to my friend by using an analogy: Just as I thought, it was wrong to put FEMA under Homeland Security because they are two different things. Homeland Security has to do with terrorism, that kind of threat; FEMA, natural disasters. I still think those should be separate. I thought it was wrong before to put them together. This is also the same kind of thing. The bioterrorism the chairman has been doing a great job at, that is one thing. The surveillance that is needed for terrorism and things such as that is different than the kind of surveillance needed by the CDCP in terms of a flu outbreak. You are talking about different people, different disciplines, a whole different set of parameters other than fighting some kind of biological terrorist threat. So while there may be logic, at some point, for doing this in a broader authorization bill--that is fine--I am saying to my friend, I don't think we have time to wait for that. I don't know when the bill would come up. Secondly, as I said to the chairman of this committee, this probably ought to be on the Labor-Health and Human Services appropriations bill.…”