Tom Harkin: “this is the amendment that a lot of us talked about earlier that provides funding for a possible avian flu pandemic. We…”

“this is the amendment that a lot of us talked about earlier that provides funding for a possible avian flu pandemic. We have worked a lot on both sides of the aisle. I especially thank our chairman, Senator Specter, for his guidance and leadership on this amendment, for working this out and, again, ensuring that we can move ahead to make sure this country is ready with the funds we need to provide for better global surveillance, to provide for stockpiling of antivirals and vaccines, for money that is going to be needed for building flu vaccine manufacturing plants and for making sure our public health infrastructure is adequate and that we have the surge capacity in hospitals. That is all in this amendment. Again, I thank Senator Specter for his leadership on this amendment in working it out so that we can move to a voice vote on this amendment. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.”