OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act of 2013

Floor Speech

Date: March 4, 2013
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: National Security Health and Health Care

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Pandemic Reauthorization bill to acknowledge the importance of PHAPA and the pandemic and medical countermeasure community; however, I do so with reservations. While H.R. 307 does not allocate funds, this bill does reauthorize the Special Reserve Fund for five years. The multiyear fund gives industry a degree of certainty when embarking on long term, multi-million dollar investments to create treatments that do not have a private market to reply upon. This is an important goal. However, our federal budget is bloated with forty-two cents out of every dollar borrowed and the refunding of the Special Reserve Fund comes at a particularly difficult time. A better structure for this funding mechanism must be developed. Nonetheless, I support the work PHAPA supports and will continue to discuss fiscally-sound funding solutions for the Special Reserve Fund during the FY2014 Labor, Health and Human Services subcommittee on Appropriations hearings and meetings.


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