Bill could restrict who handles biological agents
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By Brittany Adams
Daily Californian (U. California-Berkeley)
BERKELEY, Calif. (U-WIRE) —
Lawmakers in Congress are consid
ering a sweeping anti-terrorism bill
that would bar all non-U. S. citizens,
including international students
and faculty, from conducting re
search with certain biological mi
crobes and chemical toxins.
The proposals have brought criti
cism from college lobbyist groups,
which sav restricting all non-U.S.
citizens from working with threat
ening biological or chemical agents
would impede scientific research at
universities nationwide.
The House passed a version of the
bill Tuesday that gives senior feder
al officials discretion to grant
waivers to non-U.S. citizens on a
case-by-case basis, said Janet Schu
maker, an official with the Ameri
can Society of Microbiology.
The Senate is expected to consid
er a similar version of the bill in the
next few weeks.
“We assume that there will be a
broad list of people who can receive
the waivers, but we have no assur
ance,” Schumaker said. “We are
concerned, for example, about
Canadian lab (workers) who work
with these agents.”
Department of Health and Hu
man Services Secretary Tommy
Thompson and Attorney General
John Ashcroft created the list of re
stricted biological agents, including
smallpox, anthrax and plague.
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Currently, 250 to 300 institutions
are conducting research programs
using such agents.
Background checks on each of the
employees working on the projects
could cause possible delays in the
research. This research is extremely
important in light of recent bioter
rorist threats, Schumaker said.
College lobbyist groups in Wash
ington say they are working to pro
tect scientific research, but did ac
knowledge the necessity of
anti-terrorist legislation.
“We understand the momentum
that has built up in Congress and
want more attention paid to select
agents in the universities,” Schu
maker said. “We need to balance
protection with research.”
People who use dangerous bio
logical agents and do not register
them are also subject to severe
penalties under this legislation.
In a separate, less sweeping bill,
the House and Senate passed a
measure this week barring any for
eigner from a nation known to har
bor terrorism from handling re
stricted biological agents.
“If you have an Iraqi researcher by
birth (who is not a U.S. citizen), he
cannot get access to these restricted
substances,” said Peter Smith, a
spokesman for the Association of
American Universities.
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