Joe Wilson: “the hour is late, at least here on the east coast, but we have just prepared for passage tomorrow morning a landmark…”

“the hour is late, at least here on the east coast, but we have just prepared for passage tomorrow morning a landmark piece of legislation to improve health security in this country, and I think it deserves some additional explanation as to what is in that bill and how it will help America to prepare for and to defend against any bioterrorist attack against American citizens here at home, and I would like to take a few minutes to explain how we came to this legislation and what it is intended to do and some of its provisions. We expect to vote on this bill tomorrow here in the House although we debated it here on the floor about half an hour ago. We need to be better prepared for terrorist attacks involving biological agents. There are about 36 different pathogens, or germs, that are designated by the Centers for Disease Control as extremely dangerous. They are in a list that is maintained by the Centers for Disease Control, and we have got to be better prepared against those kinds of biological toxins, because the fact is that the world has changed.”