Joe Barton: “the Senate recently joined the House in passing one of President Bush's top legislative initiatives for this Congress…”

“the Senate recently joined the House in passing one of President Bush's top legislative initiatives for this Congress, Project Bioshield. The House passed a similar bill in July 2003 by a strong bipartisan vote of 421 to 2. I want to commend our colleagues in the Senate for working with us after the House passed its legislation to provide a bill that will be acceptable to both bodies. The bill largely reflects H.R. 2122, the bill that passed the House last year. Revisions in the Senate were made in close consultation with the House committees of jurisdiction. This is a bicameral and bipartisan product. On the House side, I want to thank the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Tauzin), my predecessor as chairman of the committee, who is on the floor this evening, for his strong leadership; and I would also like to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Cox), the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis), the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell), the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Turner), and the gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman) for their cooperation and hard work on this bill. The bipartisan spirit reflected in this legislation is similar to the effort of the last Congress on the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act and also on the Homeland Security Act.”