Bill Pascrell: “I want to say to my brother, Peter King, we wouldn't be here except for you. We have talked about this thing for 10…”

“I want to say to my brother, Peter King, we wouldn't be here except for you. We have talked about this thing for 10 years; more than that, Peter, through the chair, and we have insisted. I am proud to introduce this legislation with my friend, Congressman King. It is critical that first responders have access to stockpiled vaccines so that they can respond quickly and confidently in the event of a biological threat. Just weeks ago, we were reminded of the grave danger that anthrax poses and the need for an effective response--a strategy--when live anthrax was mistakenly shipped to dozens of labs all over the place. This is not a hypothetical danger, Mr. Speaker. Some of us remember when anthrax was mailed to some of our colleagues' offices in 2001. Several staffers were impacted. We shut down the Longworth House Office Building to decontaminate it. Packages were sent to other locations. Twenty-two Americans were infected; 5 were killed, and here we are, 14 years later. For over a decade, Congressman King and I have been fighting to develop a comprehensive national strategy to counter the grave threat that weapons of mass destruction pose to our Nation. According to the former chief medical officer and assistant secretary of the Office of Health Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, Alexander Garza: A successful anthrax attack could potentially expose hundreds of thousands of people, cause illness, death, panic, economic losses . . .…”