Review – HR 2707 Introduced – Anthrax Strategy

Back in April Rep Davis (D,NC) introduced HR 2707, the Protecting American Families and Servicemembers from Anthrax Act. The bill would require the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the DOD to develop a modernized 10-year strategy for ensuring sustained stockpiling of anthrax countermeasures. No new funding is authorized in this legislation.

Moving Forward

Davis, and 13 of his 17 cosponsors, are members of the House Armed Services Committee to which this bill was assigned primary consideration of this bill. This means that there may be sufficient influence to see the bill considered in Committee. I can see nothing in this bill that would engender any organized opposition to the bill, and I suspect that it would receive some level of bipartisan support, perhaps enough to be considered by the full House under the suspension of the rules process.

Commentary

DHS is an integral part of the threat analysis process set forth in 42 U.S.C. 247d–6b(a) that establishes the countermeasure requirements in the Strategic National Stockpile. Thus, the failure to include DHS in the ‘covered Secretaries’ definition seems odd until you realize that including them would have required, in turn, that the House Homeland Security Committee would have to have been added to the list of Committee that would have to sign off on the bill.

 

For more information on the provisions of this bill, and additional commentary on the inclusion of DOD stockpile requirements, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-2707-introduced-anthrax-strategy - subscription required.