Dateline: 10/20/01

Two U.S. Senators are prepared to introduce a bill tagging up $10 billion to assist federal and state health and emergency service providers in combating biological and chemical warfare.

Sponsors of the bill, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chairman Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and Bill Frist, R-Tenn, will combine their new bill with a $1.4 billion plan they had introduced earlier. The original $1.4 billion bill alone would have increased federal spending for bio-terrorism defense by some 400 percent.

The Kennedy-Frist bill would:

• Provide funds to combat bio-terrorism attacks on agriculture and agricultural products
• Assist in efforts to protect schools
• Authorize funds to create federal block grants for state bio-terrorism preparedness and response efforts

The bill has the backing of Appropriations Chairman Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va, who urged its passage. 

The bill could reach the floor of the full Senate as early as next week.

Introduction of the Kennedy-Frist bill will come only days after the offices of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle received an anthrax-laced letter and the House of Representatives shut down for two days while House offices were scanned for traces of anthrax.

Secretary of Homeland Defense Tom Ridge announced last week the formation of a new grant-funded task force to work at shoring up state and local bio-terrorism preparedness.

Ridge also disclosed that investigators had found that the same strain of anthrax had been used on bio-terror mailings to Washington, D.C., New York and Florida. According to Ridge, this indicated all the letters could have been mailed by the same group or individual and that future attacks were possible.

"It does appear that it may have been from the same batch,'' Ridge said. "It may have been distributed to different individuals also to infect and descend into different communities."

Investigators had concluded that the anthrax used in mail attacks so far had been naturally occurring rather than manufactured or genetically altered to make it more potent or resistive to treatment.

As of October 20, a total of eight victims nationwide, including a Florida man who died of the disease, had been confirmed as infected with anthrax, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Another 32 persons had tested positive for exposure to anthrax. Except for the deceased Florida victim, all persons exposed or infected so far are being successfully treated and are expected to recover fully.