As grant funding decreases, efforts are being made to maintain funding for preparedness efforts including the “use of certain homeland security grant funds for enhancing medical preparedness, medical surge capacity, and mass prophylaxis capabilities.” On 27 November 2012, Congressman Gus Bilirakis, a Republican from Florida, presented his support for H.R. 5997 (the Medical Preparedness Allowable Use Act) before the U.S. House of Representatives:
Mr. Speaker, I rise to support H.R. 5997, the Medical Preparedness Allowable Use Act, a bipartisan bill which amends the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to make it clear that grant funds under the State Homeland Security Grant Program [SHSGP] and the Urban Area Security Initiative [UASI] may be used to enhance medical preparedness and purchase medical countermeasures.
I introduced H.R. 5997 after a series of hearings on medical countermeasures in the Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Communications. At these hearings, we received testimony from representatives of the emergency response community on the importance of stockpiling medical countermeasures in the event of a WMD [weapons of mass destruction] attack. This includes pre-deployed medical kits for first responders and their families, similar to those provided to postal workers participating in the national U.S. Postal Medical Countermeasures Dispensing Pilot Program.
The grant guidance for the State Homeland Security Grant Program and the Urban Area Security Initiative currently permits this funding to be used to procure medical countermeasures and for other medical preparedness and medical surge capacity equipment and activities. However, this guidance is developed on an annual basis, and there is no guarantee that these uses will be authorized in the future.
To be clear, this bill does not create a new grant program or authorize new funding. It simply ensures that these activities will remain allowable uses under SHSGP and UASI.
As the WMD Commission noted in its report, “World at Risk,” it is more likely than not that there will be a weapon of mass destruction used someplace on Earth by a terrorist group before the end of the year 2013, and it’s more likely that this weapon will be biological, rather than nuclear.
The expenditures authorized and codified by the bill we are considering today can make a difference in the protection of the public, including emergency responders, in the event of such an attack, and there should be no doubt that grant funding may be used to support them now and in the future.
With a vote of 397 to 1, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill as amended. In a statement by Bilirakis following the positive outcome, he spoke about the next step: “Experts have repeatedly noted that the threat of a WMD attack is real. We must work to ensure plans, medication and equipment are available to protect the public, including emergency response providers, in the event of an attack. The legislation passed by the House today recognizes the continued importance of ensuring medical preparedness activities remain allowable grant uses. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Senate to get this bill signed into law.”
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For additional information on:
The Medical Preparedness Allowable Use Act, visit http://beta.congress.gov/bill/112th-congress/house-bill/5997
The Homeland Security Act of 2002, visit http://beta.congress.gov/bill/107th-congress/house-bill/5005?q=Homeland+Security+Act+of+2002
Testimony made by Bilirakis, visit http://bilirakis.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4353:us-house-passes-bilirakis-legislation-to-ensure-preparedness-activities-in-times-of-disaster&catid=73:2011-news-releases&Itemid=2
________________________ Gus M. Bilirakis is a Republican from Florida who is currently serving his third term in the United States House of Representatives and is the sponsor of Bill HR 5997. As a Representative, he serves on the Committees on Homeland Security, Veterans’ Affairs and Foreign Affairs. He has been appointed Chairman of the Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communication, where he works to enhance emergency preparedness across the nation. He also has been named Vice Chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, where he will advocate for veterans and oversee the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.