{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.carper.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ContentRecord_id=6f6fa230-1cd7-4a1a-9839-9ad272d3258c", "HSGAC Hearing Statement: \"Assessing the State of Our Nations Biodefense\"", "2015-10-28", "2015", "2015-10", "Democrat", "House", "DE", "Thomas Carper", "C000174", "www.carper.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON  Today, the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs held the hearing, Assessing the State of Our Nations Biodefense. Below is the opening statement of Ranking Member Tom Carper (D-Del.), as prepared for delivery:\r\nThank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing on the state of our nations biodefense.\r\nIm delighted to welcome two of my former colleaguesJoe Lieberman and Tom Ridge. They have been  and remain  two of my very favorite people in the world, and here they are side by side! My heartfelt thanks to both of you for being here and for your extraordinary and continued service to our country on the issue well be discussing today and on many others, as well.\r\nIn recent years, public officials and academic experts alike have sounded the alarm about our ability to deal effectively with biological threats. Since 2000, several commissions, including the 9/11 Commission, have affirmed the danger that the release of a biological agent poses to all of us. In doing so, theyve urged us to devote more attention and resources to detecting, preventing, and responding to such an incident.\r\nOur experience with Ebola over the last year serves as a fresh reminder that biological threats are real.Over 11,000 people world-wide lost their lives in this recent Ebola outbreak and a number of Americans were infected with the disease. The spread of this diseaseas well as the public alarm over the epidemicdemonstrate the importance of having the appropriate policies, public engagement plans, and resources in place ahead of time.\r\nIts important to remember, too, that biological threats dont just have an adverse impact on our health and our homeland security. They can also dramatically impact our economy. As some of us will recall, just a few months ago, parts of our country struggled with an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian flu.\r\nThough harmless to people so far, the virus devastated some parts of the poultry industry, leading to higher egg prices and the closure of some foreign markets for U.S. poultry products, thus adversely impacting businesses large and small.\r\nFurther complicating matters, there have also been a number of troubling incidents over the past year at federal and non-governmental labs that research infectious diseases.\r\nThe reports of deadly pathogens being mishandled or misplaced is concerning and underscores the need for more rigorous oversight both here and in the Administration.\r\nIn the midst of these developments, a number of very smart people came together and began examining how the federal government  in conjunction with state, local, and non-governmental entities  was doing at preventing and combating potential biological hazards.\r\nSince last year, the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense  led by our two very able friends we have before us today  has convened several public meetings and consulted with a number of experts. Their goal was simple  offer recommendations on how to improve our efforts and address capability gaps that had previously been overlooked.\r\nThat review, released earlier this morning, contains a number of valuable recommendations that could significantly improve our biosecurity efforts. I urge the Administration and our colleagues in Congress to give these recommendations the attention they deserve and, then, take action.\r\nIlook forward to discussing the Panels findings today. Im confident that our witnesses can help Congress identify any number of common sense improvements to our nations biodefense systems that could be enacted with bipartisan support.\r\nMy thanks again to Senator Lieberman and Governor Ridge for being here today to discuss their work and that of the team they led. I look forward to a productive hearing  and knowing these two gentlemen well  an enjoyable one, too! To paraphrase one of our former commanders-in-chief, Bring it on!", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.carper.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ContentRecord_id=6f6fa230-1cd7-4a1a-9839-9ad272d3258c"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.867397990077734, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}