E-NEWS FROM THE NATIONAL VACCINE INFORMATION CENTER

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UNITED WAY/COMBINED FEDERAL CAMPAIGN

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"Protecting the health and informed consent rights of children since 1982."

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate, itself the target of an anthrax attack last year, sent President Bush a broad bioterrorism bill on Thursday devoting $4.6 billion to stockpiling vaccines, improving food inspections and boosting security for water systems.

``Because of the initiatives we approve today, American families can go to sleep tonight knowing that their security will be enhanced,'' said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., one of the bill's chief authors.

The Senate approved the bill on a 98-0 vote after the House passed it Wednesday. Bush is expected to sign it when he returns from a trip to Europe.

The bill would spend $640 million to produce and stockpile smallpox vaccines for vast numbers of Americans in the event the eradicated disease is reintroduced by terrorists. The measure also expands the availability of potassium iodide for communities near nuclear plants to treat radiation poisoning in case of terrorist attack.

The bill also will pump more money into the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile -- secret stashes of medicine at locations throughout the United States.

A separate House bill aiming $29 billion at the fight

against terrorism bogged down Thursday in an election-year dispute over the rising national debt. House members planned to work through the night to try to resurrect the bill before the Memorial Day recess.

Ultimate passage of that bill was still a virtual

certainty. Both parties strongly support its spending for

the Pentagon, intelligence, airport security, aid to U.S. allies and New York's recovery from the Sept. 11 attacks.

The House on Wednesday also authorized $5 billion to help

the U.S. Customs Service buy special equipment to fight terrorism at the borders.

Congress has been working on the bioterrorism bill since

the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, and accelerated the process after suffering a bioterrorism attack of its own.

``We saw, of course, the devastating impact of a biological incident with the anthrax incident,'' said Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H.

Mail service to Capitol Hill was stopped for six weeks

after an anthrax-contaminated letter was discovered last October in an office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. A second anthrax letter was discovered later addressed to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

Anthrax-contaminated mail at post offices and elsewhere

killed five people and sickened an additional 13 last year.

And recent scares have occurred at the Federal Reserve and World Bank. The FBI is investigating but has not yet determined the source of the tainted letters.

The bill will provide a total of $1.6 billion in grants to states for hospital preparedness and assessments of the vulnerability of local water systems.

``This bill reduces our vulnerability when it comes to the threat of bioterrorism, and thus reduces the likelihood of an attack,'' said Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

Water utilities under the legislation will be required to develop emergency plans and submit them to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will

get $300 million under the legislation to upgrade its facilities.

The compromise also would renew a law that allows the Food

and Drug Administration to charge fees to pharmaceutical companies to pay for speedier review of new medications. Negotiators also included $45 million to help speed the review of generic drugs and $27 million to help the FDA monitor pharmaceutical advertising aimed at consumers. Both amounts would be spent over five years.

On the Net:

The bill, H.R. 3448, is at

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