Good morning, everybody. If we can go ahead and take your seats, well get started in a moment. Good morning, im the chief medical advisor of the bipartisan Politics Center and i want to welcome all of you to todays event entitled budgeting for biodefense are we prepared. Our mission is to actively seek to combine the best ideas from both Political Parties to promote health, security, and opportunity for all americans. We drive principled and politically viable policy solutions through the power of analysis, negotiation, and advocacy. Yesterday, former senators tom daschle and judd greg released a b. P. C. Report outlining options for policymakers to optimize funding that supports the procurement of medical countermeasures needed in the event of a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear event. Today well hear about the findings from this report and hear from experts from congress, the executive branch and industry. Without further ado, id like to vite b. B. C. Cofounder and former Senate Majority leader tom daschle to the podium. Were fortunate for his leadership. Senator. Senator daschle thank you very much. Thank you to all of you for coming on this valentines day. We can only describe it as an unconventional way to begin a day like this. But as some of you may know, the issue of biodefense is one thats intensely personal for me. A little over 16 years ago, my Senate Office received a letter containing anthrax. 28 people were exposed. The entire harp Senate Office building was closed for nearly 100 days. It was a frightening time. The good news is is everyone who was exposed was kept healthy thanks in large measure to dr. Greg martin, the n. I. H. , and lots of cipr. One of my Lasting Impressions was the strong, bipartisan support and resolve of my senate colleagues. Republicans gai temporary office space to democrats. Democrats lent staff and equipment to republicans. It was extraordinarily gratifying. Biodefense is not republican or democratic. Nor is it something that the public or private sectors can ever do alone. And thats why im so pleased to be here today to have part for thed on this project with senator judd greg. Senator greg was unable to be in washington this morning but were very, very grateful for his continued leadership and his dedication to this issue. Unfortunately, in the past 16 years, the danger from chemical, biological, radiolg call or Nuclear Threats has only grown. Many states named by the state department as sponsors of terrorism are believed either to possess or be actively pursuing biological weapons. Including north korea. There are new concerns that it may be easier than we had feared for terrorists to recreate the smallpoxvirus. And we need only to look at the devastating flu season to realize how unprepared we are for a true pandemic, whether natural or manmade. Unfortunately, i believe its not a question of if, the u. S. Will face another biological threat. But when. The good news is, we are more prepared than we were 16 years ago. In 2004, senator greg sponsored the bioshield act which established a Publicprivate Partnership that has taken significant strides to making our country safer. It created a government market guarantee by providing a 10year appropriation, permitting the secretary of health and Human Services to obligate funds to develop and purchase medical countermeasures for stockpiling by the government this program was essential because theres no typical commercial market for these products today. By any measure, project bioshield has been a success. Since its creation, the program has facilitated the procurement of 27 medical countermeasures against threats like smallpox and anthrax and chemical events. Six of these products have received f. D. A. Approval. But we still have a long way to go. Critical to project bioshields early success was the fact that the original funding mechanism was a 10year appropriation this provided the private sector with a critical degree of certainty and allowed them to make awards that supported a Late State Development activity as well as procurement. Unfortunately, when project bioshelled was reauthorized in the act of 2013, the program reverted to a year over year appropriation this led to a funding shortfall, smaller awards, and much greater uncertainty. Many would say the program has suffered as a result. This year, congress will extend the project bioshield as part of popa. Authorization of were delight to have had senator byrd here with us today who is leading the effort in the senate alongside senator casey. For that reason, senator gregg and i thought it would be timely to take a fresh look at project bioshield and the programs funding. When we spoke with stake holders there was universal agreement that the original 10year appropriation was a critical part of the programs success. Developing medical countermeasures is a costly and risky endeavor. This multiyear appropriation gave private sector partners the certainty needed to make those investments. As jut lined in our paper, returning to a multiyear appropriation mechanism would require action by authorizers, appropriators and the budget committees. Most importantly, restoring this structure would provide the certainty needed to show that project bioshield will continue to support the innovation that will protect our nation for another decade. Im delighted that the administration has recently come out in support of restoring the original funding mechanism as part of the administrations request for fiscal year 2018 taking into account the new resources made available by last weeks budget deal, the administration has proposed an additional 4. 99 billion for project bioshield. These funds would be used to move from an annual appropriation process back to a 10year advanced appropriation. I want to commend the administration for their leadership on this issue, which is so essential to our countrys safety. I have now had the relatively unique experience of working on biodefense issues from a number of different perfect is, including as a member of the bipartisan Blue Ribbon Study Panel on biodefense. One thing that has always stood out for me is the broad consensus around these issues. Everyone recognizes theres a threat. Everyone recognizes that more needs to be done. But the issues the issue is one of priorities. Biodefense is relatively unique in that it spans both health and defense. Meaning it is an issue with many supporters but very, very few champions. Some mistake venly belief if and when another biological threat arises, our government will find the resources to address it, but addressing the threat after its already emerged will not only be far more costly than preparing in advance, but potentially come at a great price of human life. As we all know, the federal budget continues to be under enormous pressure. The biothreats are too real and too potentially devastating not to be a national priority. For that reason, i am extremely pleased to be able to introduce someone who has been that true champion for many, many years. Senator richard burr was first elected to the house of representatives in 1994 where he served for five terms. He is currently serving North Carolina in his third time in the u. S. Senate. Hes a vocal advocate for veterans and men and women serving in the military. Hes also been the champion on the issue of biodefense. And i mean the champion. He sponsored the original pandemic and all hazards act as well as the 2013 reauthorization and under his leadership the senate has begun consideration of the 2018 reauthorization. Were grateful he could take time out of a very, very busy schedule today and we look forward to his perspective on whats to come. Elcome senator byrd. Thank you very much and i jump on the opportunity to talk for 15 or 20 minutes without mentioning russia. It seems to be allconsuming but it also demonstrates the things we think are in our Rearview Mirror all of a sudden reappear right in front of us. Senator burr thats how we have to put in perspective the need for an investment in the right leadership in biodefense. We have new adversaries every day that enter the game. They look for the fastest, cheapest, most effective way too produce a threat. Im going to also remind you that a lot of that comes naturally. As i walked over here, though and listened to your description of accomplishment, it proves to me what you can do on the hill if youve got good staff. But i also reflected back to 16 years ago. And ask myself how many Staff Members on the hill today were here then . Probably less than 20 of the staff. So it made me understand that reauthorization is not an Automatic Process for the Staff Members that are serving many members of the house and senate. That they likely were under 18 years old on 9 11, they dont remember the debate that happened here relative to bioshield. They probably were just coming out of college when the first reauthorization happened. And now they are seasoned staff on the hill having not participated in any debate. I think its plopet for me to spend a second telling you why we created bioshield, what our frame of mind was and what led us to go to popa. I liken this to a story i heard about a young lady a graduate of the university of North Carolinachapel hill. She had a lifes ambition to be a schoolteacher. On chapel hill you graduate on a sunday. She went across the stage on sunday, got that diploma. She was from eastern North Carolina. When she got that diploma she went home and started interviewing for a schoolteachers job. Third superintendent she stopped and saw for a job as a third grade teacher and she spent all summer, she couldnt wait for that hot august day, she had her seating chart ready, ready to fill every childs first name she shoe the she knew the most important thing was filling in the names. She got halfway around the room, she said, whats your first name. He said damnit. Nd she said, whats your name . Damnit jones. She said does your her pick you up in the afternoon . He said, yes, maam. I said, come see me id like to see your mother. The teacher knocked on the car window, the poor woman rolled the window down. She said, i meant to come talk to you. He was the ninth child, it was the only thing that came to mind. About three months later, superintendent is out in schools. He happened to be visiting that school , he remembered this young schoolteacher he had hired and he wanned to go into her classroom and see how the kids were doing. She decided she was going to have a spelling bee. She had a talented group of third graders. She started calling out words and they were raising their hand theyd gone nine for nine, the superintendent visibly impressed. She thought now is the time to quit. She turned to go back to the black board. There was damnit with his hand up. She said young man, whats what do you want . He said id like to spell chrysanthemum. She said, damnit you cant spell that, the superintendent said why dont you let him try . We had a need in the federal government, a need in america to produce medical countermeasures for threats we saw. We looked at big pharma and there was no movement. But we had a lot of innovators, a lot of small companies, saying hey, why dont you let us try . Let us spend some time telling you what the difficulties are we identified this phrase, the valley of death. That point an innovator get to where theyve got promising data , they know where they want to go but they dont have the funding to make it through the clinical side of it. We looked at popa and realized we could structure, for lack of a better word, a public v. C. Company. Venture capital fund that funded that valley of death. That inknow viteors had a understanding of the technologies, their technology was certified as potentially meeting the need we had, and we gave them the runway to get there and i think it gave us the predictable pathway of an accelerated process of trials an hopefully approval. A has had ba trmbings 34 successful m. C. M. s through the system. Weve done that even with the limitations that were put on bioshield from a standpoint of our ability to acquire those particular things at the end of the process. Nobody is happier than i am, tom, that the administration has come around and basically said were going to fund 5 billion over the next 10 years. But ive got to share with all of you, it doesnt happen just with money. It takes two additional things. It takes leadership and it takes commitment. I think for the first time in a long time weve got the leadership in place at all levels. We will always have a problem in the executive branch, i dont care who makes it up, as making sure that medical countermeasures raise to a level that requires a financial commitment. So im glad that maybe we wont have to revisit that for a 1year period if we get the advanced fuvending. But i cant tell you how much commitment and leadership all the way down the pipeline are to the success of the program. Its the ks ability to bring people in and assure them that were a partner. And i cant stress this enough. This does not look like the historical f. D. A. Model. Theres an f. D. A. Component to it. But up until the time you go through that and i would tell you that even through the f. D. A. Process, it is a part for theship between the Public Sector and private sector. And the American People are the beneficiaries of it. I dont think youll have any company say we became rich participating in this program. What we hope and what we see through the creation of barta and this pathway is that weve companies whotive have new technological platforms they may be producing a product that goes for a particular threat that we have on our matrix but they also created a platform that could potentially treat six different types of cancer. Could begin to address certain things that we havent had an alternative to today. Im not sure the f. D. A. Would publicly say it but some of the folks in the pipeline at barta in development have actually been called in to the game where we had no countermeasure for a particular type of disease that hit and they asked them to produce it to save kids lives. Thats happened just about every year for the past five. We wouldnt have that ability if it wasnt for bioshield and it wouldnt for popa and the creation of barta. And now i think weve got in place the overall leadership we need to grow this in to something that becomes much more permanent from a standpoint of its impact and its mark on i think government and the private sector. Our goal when we started with this was to foster innovation in the private sector through arity of need, financial partnership, and that accelerated pathway. Clarity is a requirement by people like me to go out and hold administrations accountable, hold agencies accountable, to work with agencies on correcting leadership problems which is a function that congress likes to get involved in way too much but in this particular case i think is way too important. The opportunity to make this permanent, to embed it in statute, and thats the challenging thing. Is how much of what we have been provided now with this leadership from the white house can we put in statute in a way that we dont have to worry every 16 years whether the brain trust of the United States congress, you that are staffers, remember or were even here when we had the debate. But that you can look at the successes of what we did and say, what we should do is continue programs that are successful because they provide value, they provide certainty. I think this is particularly important right now. Because i would suggest to you in my day job of chairman of the Intelligence Committee that were getting ready to go through a decade of disruption. Disruption that for many in this room is not going to be foreign because you grew up using the device in your pocket and tom and i grew up at a time where we called somebody and asked them to do something for us. It will come natural for many of you but it will happen at an accelerated pace that none of us understand today. Our ability to adjust and adapt and to take advantage of it is ur ability to forget the historicalprocedural markers in place that have driven American Society for so long and accept the fact that if we dont allow innovators to innovate in this country at the pace that they can anywhere else in the world, a predictable thing will happen. They will leave here. So it is absolutely crucial whether were talking about the Health Care Space and biodefense or whether were talking about the department of defense or whether were talking about any other area of our economy. Weve got to make sure that the architecture that weve got in place is not one where the limiting factor to success is government itself. Weve got to position government and all agencies of government to be a partner in the success of where innovators and technology allow us to go. And i would telling you as a part of health care, as political as it can be, and we had one of those debates earlier this year, my belief that in two years from now that debate is irrelevant. Because if we do this right, whether he have overcome everything that was an obstacle to finding a common ground. Because there will flonger be a separation between rural and urban delivery of health care. Because most of it will be generated right here. Thats whats possible. But i would tell you our success with at the signing, reauthorizing, funding the effort, driving innovation, is also important to making sure that what we can do with this fact reality. So, if i have any takeaway from what i talk about, talked about, its that this is much igger in my book than just a biodefense issue. This is about creating the framework for how over the next 10 to 20 years the United Private tners with innovators to produce things that benefit society, our economy, our people. So, toms i thank you and tom, i thank you and judd greg for the leadership on this. It takes a lot to have a partnership with trent lott. I understand that. Hopefully he doesnt sing to you like he used to sing to us. Leaders ly respect at leave the institution i serve in and stay here to continue to do good for the American People. And i think judd gregg and tom daschle are two of those individuals that i hold in tremendous regard. I admitted to him bf i came up, i spen