S 1649 Hearing

Earlier this week the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held their first hearing for S 1649, the WMD Prevention and Preparedness Act of 2009. The Chair and Vice-Chair of the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism testified as did Gregory D. Kutz of the Government Accountability Office. As I noted in an earlier blog this bill is mainly targeted at biological weapons not chemical or nuclear weapons of mass destruction, though it does address some issues related to all three types of weapons. This hearing carried that emphasis on biological weapons even further. The GAO testimony dealt entirely with security at labs that handle the most dangerous organisms. Senator’s Graham and Talent acknowledged that their commission dealt with biological and nuclear WMD, but their testimony was focused on bio-weapons. No mention was made of chemical WMD in any of the prepared testimony. A Committee press release posted after the hearing noted that Senator Lieberman “hoped to move the legislation through the Committee next month”. While this hearing had nothing substantive to say about chemical security issues, there are provisions in the bill that will affect positively affect responses to intentional or accidental releases of toxic chemicals.