WASHINGTON -- In an attempt to differentiate themselves from their GOP counterparts, House Democrats are preparing legislation they say will shield America from biological terrorism.
As anxieties about anthrax mushroomed on Capitol Hill -- with the deadly bacteria discovered in five congressional office buildings so far -- House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Missouri) said Thursday that new spending and police powers are necessary to protect the public.
At a press conference held in the open air away from any of the polluted buildings, Gephardt said his "Bioterrorism Protection Act" would earmark $7 billion for homeland security -- including $1.4 billion on vaccines and antibiotics -- and provide police with instant access to private databases such as the airline's SABRE system and Amtrak reservations.
"I talked to (Office of Homeland Security Director) Tom Ridge last night in a meeting," Gephardt said. "We did not talk about dollar amounts but I think this package is very sensible."
Other portions of the measure would allocate $1 billion on hospitals and emergency medical workers and $500 million on biological weapons detection.
One ambiguous part of the summary says that $13.5 million would go toward the development of biometric scanning techniques to be deployed at border checkpoints. The goal is to use "biometric techniques to identify suicide-biological bombs" -- an unusual phrase that raises the specter of infected terrorists knowingly trying to spread contagion inside America.
Gephardt's aides said the bill was still being drafted and the text would not be available until next week.
Acknowledging that Republican support is key to enacting the measure, Gephardt said, "I would be happy to make it a bipartisan bill."
House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois) has not yet reviewed the proposal, an aide said. Hastert spokesman John Feehery said the speaker has "not yet made any decisions on which proposals to support."
This bill joins a medley of others that popped up soon after the anthrax-laden letters began to appear:
- On Tuesday, the House approved the Bioterrorism Enforcement Act, which would establish criminal and civil penalties for possession and use of biological toxins. The bill is awaiting a vote in the Senate.
- Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) has introduced a $1.1 billion bill that aimed to underwrite protection against biowarfare, making grants to research. (Pork alert: The "Arthropod-Borne Animal Disease Laboratory" in Laramie, Wyoming gets $30 million.)
- The State "Bioterrorism Preparedness Act" has been introduced in both the House and Senate. It hands state governments $550 million in grants based on the size of their population. Despite all the money Congress appears eager to spend on any proposal purporting to thwart terrorists, it faces serious technological challenges. The U.S. stockpile of smallpox vaccines is limited, and the government hopes to buy far more Cipro, the antibiotic most effective against anthrax.
Charles Pena, a senior defense policy analyst with the Cato Institute, doesn't believe more government spending will necessarily solve the problem.
"You can spend a lot of money trying to provide a certain level of security, but the bioterrorist threat is fairly wide ranging.... The terrorists could just be exhausting us getting us to respond to everything like it's a biological attack," Pena said.
He added: "You're talking about having a big security apparatus in place to protect against the vast threat. I know people don't like to think of it but there is a certain cost-effectiveness trade-off that has to take place where sending more money might not do much, and you might not gain much in the process."
Yet the backlog on smallpox vaccinations might contribute to some short-term government frugality.
Sue Reingold, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies who specializes in bioterrorism, said, "There are also clinical trials underway to see if they can dilute the vaccine by five-fold to get more doses out of it."
Reingold estimates there is currently enough for 12 million doses of the smallpox vaccine in the stock held by the Centers for Disease Control. Some good news: Reingold said it's possible for those who do receive smallpox vaccinations to inoculate people they may come in casual contact with -- such as shaking hands -- in what would essentially be spreading the cure to the disease.
The downside to widespread vaccination is that about one in every 5,000 people experience an adverse reaction to smallpox vaccination, especially for people who have a weakened immune systems or are undergoing chemotherapy.
