Project BioShield
Abstract
Many potential biological terrorism agents lack available countermeasures. President Bush proposed Project BioShield to address this need. Congress considered this proposal in S. 15 (Gregg), S. 1504 (Gregg), and H.R. 2122 (Tauzin). President Bush signed S. 15 into law on July 21, 2004 (The Project BioShield Act of 2004, P.L. 108-276). The main provisions of this law include (1) relaxing procedures for bioterrorism-related procurement, hiring, and awarding research grants; (2) guaranteeing a federal government market for new biomedical countermeasures; and (3) permitting emergency use of unapproved countermeasures. Project BioShield countermeasure procurement is funded by the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2004 (P.L. 108-90) which advance appropriated $5.593 billion for FY2004-FY2013. Additional industry incentives being considered by Congress include protection from litigation because of adverse reactions to the countermeasures and tax and intellectual property incentives (S. 666, Lieberman). Other options include directly funding development or increasing the scope of existing federal programs designed to encourage technology commercialization. This report will be updated in response to legislative developmetns.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 27, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA444866
Entities
People
- Frank Gottron
Organizations
- Library of Congress