President Barack Obama is coming under attack from a bipartisan group of senators who object to an administration effort to slash up to $2 billion from an anti-bioterrorism program.
A bill pending in the House would decrease funding for Project BioShield for the purpose of buying and stockpiling drugs and vaccines to combat a bioterror attack, reports the Los Angeles Times.
"The catastrophic events of September 11th and the anthrax attacks that followed demonstrated that our government was ill prepared to deal with the kinds of terrorist attacks we may well face in the future," Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said in a statement. "We still have no modern vaccine for anthrax and no countermeasures for dozens of other potential bioterror pathogens. The BioShield Program was meant to address these serious security shortcomings."
Lieberman and 16 other senators signed a letter to Obama that outlines their objections to the funding cuts.
Bioterror experts say a biological attack could kill 400,000 Americans and cost $2 trillion in economic damage, reports the Times.
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