Sherwood Boehlert: “we live in a different world than we did 2 years ago, a world where the threat of attack from biological and chemical…”

“we live in a different world than we did 2 years ago, a world where the threat of attack from biological and chemical agents remains high. Here on Capitol Hill we know this all too well. We were all victims of a vicious attack using anthrax and poisoning our own postal system. The attack shut down half of an entire branch of our government and lives were lost. A very real threat became a sad reality. Project BioShield will take the necessary steps to provide greater protection for Americans from those malicious attacks, to research, develop, manufacture and stockpile effective drugs and vaccines. In order to make this plan a reality, the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health must have a strong infrastructure of laboratories and facilities designed for research on the most dangerous of pathogens. The research stage of this process is the most important part of developing a broad and effective basis for this project. In my own district, there is an effort underway to build a national biocontainment laboratory to be administered by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.”