Bill would cloak war on bioterror
By JEFF NESMITH
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 11/05/05
Washington — A bill moving rapidly through the Senate would create a secretive national research center to respond to bioterrorism threats and natural disease outbreaks.
The bill, co-sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), would shift the main responsibility for developing bioterrorism countermeasures out of the Department of Homeland Security and into a new Biological Advanced Research and Development Agency in the Department of Health and Human Services.
The agency, commonly referred to as BARDA, would be given a first-year budget of $1 billion and some unusually strong powers.
It would have authority to shield drug manufacturers from liability lawsuits in the event a drug used to counteract a bioterrorism event or disease outbreak caused death or injury.
It also would be granted a blanket exemption from the federal Freedom of Information Act.
"I propose an unprecedented effort, the creation of a Manhattan Project for the 21st century, not with the goal of creating a new destructive agent, but to defend against infectious diseases and biological weapons."
Burr's press secretary, Doug Heye, confirmed Friday that BARDA would be the agency to carry out that project.
Groups representing scientists, the media and others have complained that the agency would get an unprecedented exemption from scrutiny.
"This bill breaks new ground in the area of government secrecy," said Steven Aftergood, director of a Federation of American Scientists project on official secrecy.
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