A key Senate committee on Wednesday advanced legislation that would help the U.S. prevent and respond to pandemics, just as deaths from Ebola are rising overseas.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was the only senator on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee who did not support the measure, which would reauthorize the Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Act, or PAHPA. The bill must be reauthorized by September or programs under PAHPA will expire.
The reauthorization effort comes as the U.S. is coming out of a particularly dire flu season, and as the Ebola virus spreads anew in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where 27 people have died.
“The recent resurgence of Ebola in the Congo should serve as a stark reminder that the threats we are working to address in this bill aren’t hypothetical,” said Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the committee. “They are real, they are present, and deserving of serious attention.”
The legislation also helps the government coordinate responses against natural disasters such as hurricanes or mudslides, and against bioterrorist attacks.
The pandemics bill originally passed in 2006, soon after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the Gulf Coast and a strain of bird flu was spreading across Europe and Asia. The law aimed to better organize the ways that federal, state, and local departments respond to outbreaks and disasters, including by working with healthcare facilities, encouraging vaccine development, and boosting the number of healthcare workers.
The latest version includes a provision to advance vaccines and treatments against the flu, and bolsters research against antibiotic resistance. It improves the Public Health Emergency Fund by specifying that it can be used immediately to support the response or preparedness against a public health emergency. In recent years, public health funding has been mired in political debates, which has resulted in delayed appropriation and money being shifted from other agencies.
[Related: Health officials begin using experimental vaccine to fight Ebola in Congo]
Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., the author of the bill 12 years ago, said he was pleased that the bill had been broadened and still includes the “spirit of the law, which is wholly focused on protecting Americans from the threats we are facing.”
In January, Burr led two hearings in the HELP Committee to discuss the bill with experts from the medical field and from various health agencies.
“These are some of the greatest threats that our nation and our world will face,” said Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., the bill’s co-author.
A representative from Paul’s office said he was concerned about the reauthorization levels in the bill, which were above the authorization approved in the omnibus spending deal.
“Given that he did not support the funding levels in the omni, he was unable to support spending this high above the budget caps,” the representative said.
