Senator Clinton Calls for National Campaign to Recruit Bioterror Experts

Children's Health Fund
Thursday, 10 July 2003

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) today announced that she will introduce the "Protecting Public Health is Public Service Act" to launch a national campaign to recruit bioterror experts and other public health professionals. Senator Clinton said that she was very concerned about a report released this week by the Partnership for Public Service, which found not only that our nation was under prepared for a bioterrorism attack but also that 50 percent of our experts trained to respond to a biological or chemical attack will retire over the next five years and this would put our country and our public health system at great risk. (http://www.ourpublicservice.org/press_release3749/press_release_show.htm?doc_id=181842)

"On September 11, we learned how reliant we are as a nation on our front line defenders, and when it comes to bioterror, our front line defenders are our public health professionals. It deeply concerns me that, according to the Office of Personnel Management, more than 2,600 public health professionals are eligible to retire in 2008 and that number could soar to more than 8,000 in just the next few years," said Clinton.

"That is why I am recommending both a short-term and long-term solution. In the short-term we should take advantage of already established training centers, like those in New York. In the long-term we need to establish a national recruitment campaign that provides incentives to people who want to become public health professionals. We need to educate our students that protecting public health is public service. And my bill will provide for a study to determine just how many experts we need."

"Senator Clinton is right on target with this public health campaign," said Dr. Irwin Redlener, Director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. "There are things that can and should be done to bolster our nation's public health response system in the event of terrorist and other major disasters. But perhaps most important is reflected in Senator Clinton's call to action -- increasing the number of public health professionals will ensure that we never have to face critical shortages in the public health arena again."

In a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Julie Gerberding, Senator Clinton encouraged them to work with her on this legislation, and until this national recruitment campaign can be launched, to take advantage of those local training centers already in place and put them to use in the short-term.

In New York, two Centers for Public Health Preparedness are located at SUNY Albany and Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. They have already trained approx 10,000 people over the past two years in bioterrorism preparedness and could train experts for regions that do not have centers like these in their area. New York's NYU, Hunter College, University of Rochester, New York Medical College, SUNY-Downstate, and the University of Buffalo also offer programs in public health.

According to the Association of Schools of Public Health Preparedness and Prevention, the 19 nationwide Centers for Public Health Preparedness have asked the Administration for $50 million-nearly double what the President's budget proposes-and Senator Clinton called on the Administration to grant those requests.

A full text of Senator Clinton's letter follows:

Dear Secretary Ridge, Secretary Thompson and Dr. Gerberding,

This week the Partnership for Public Service released a report stating that 50 percent of our experts trained to respond to a biological or chemical attack will retire over the next five years and this would put our country and our public health system at great risk. As we continue to pursue our common goal of making America safer and more prepared, we must address this growing personnel problem in our public health system immediately. professionals.

On September 11, we learned how reliant we are as a nation on our front line defenders, and when it comes to bioterror, our front line defenders are our public health professionals. It concerns me that, according to the Office of Personnel Management, more than 2,600 public health professionals are eligible to retire in 2008 and that number could soar to more than 8,000 in just the next few years.

That is why I will be introducing "The Protecting Public Health is Public Service Act of 2003. We need a national campaign that reaches out to the best and the brightest with incentives to pursue careers in public health and educates our high school students and college students about their options is a step we must take to strengthen our public health departments across the country.

Not only would this legislation provide resources to launch this campaign, it would also authorize a study to determine how many experts we need to hire and train in addition to the 8,000 eligible to retire. The need for this legislation is all the more urgent given that bioterrorism preparedness demands are placing tremendous strain on our public health departments at a time when they barely have funding and staff to meet their current health care needs.

For example, in order to meet the demands of Phase I of the Smallpox vaccinations, Onondaga County in New York will have to shift staff members resulting in the reduction of services by more than one-third. There will be 835 fewer pediatric dental visits and a reduction of 221 visits for women who need breast and cervical cancer screening. Our public health departments are stretched thin already, and with the state and local budget crunch, these departments lack the resources to even keep some of the staff they currently have. If we do not find ways to provide these departments the resources to attract, and also pay for more professionals, this situation will only get worse as those 8,000 experts retire.

Although there are provisions in the Bioterrorism Preparedness And Response Act of 2002 that call for workforce training, recruitment, and development, and Congress has appropriated nearly $3 billion to better protect against a biological and chemical attack, the legislation and other public health needs since then have placed increased demands on our public health system leaving insufficient resources to expand personnel, or, as the recent reports indicate, even keep pace at current levels. If the Department of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, and Centers for Disease Control invest the resources, improve coordination and focus, we can have the experts and personnel in place so that no void is left when these doctors, public health officials, biologists, and scientists begin to retire.

But our needs are real and immediate. So, until this national recruitment campaign is launched, we should take advantage of those local training centers already in place and put them to use in the short-term. In New York, two Centers for Public Health Preparedness are located at SUNY Albany and Columbia University. They have already trained approximately 10,000 people each year in bioterrorism preparedness and could train experts for regions that do not have centers like these in their area. New York's NYU, Hunter College, University of Rochester, New York Medical College, SUNY-Downstate, and the University of Buffalo also offer programs in public health.

According to the Association of Schools of Public Health Preparedness and Prevention, the 19 nationwide Centers for Public Health Preparedness have asked the Administration for $50 million-nearly double what the President's budget proposes-they should receive those much needed resources and I hope that you will assist them with those requests.

We have made some progress since September 11th and the Anthrax Attacks - the Assistant Secretary for Public Health and Emergency Preparedness at HHS will now play a critical role in coordinating the 1200 officers in the Commissioned Corps Readiness Force and the 8000 personnel in the National Disaster Medical System, and the FDA has doubled its food safety capacity. The funding HHS has given our schools of public health, unfortunately, will not go far enough in helping train, recruit, and provide incentives to hire the best Americans to fill those vacancies in five years. The Partnership for Public Service report and the Council on Foreign Relations reports warn us that we need to do more to defend our country.

We know that the threat of a bioterrorist attack still exists. To better protect the American people, the CDC's own National Advisory Committee on Children and Terrorism recommended "doubling the size of the current Epidemic Intelligence Service, recruiting more pediatricians and pediatric health specialists into it, and assigning at least one terrorism-specific EIS Fellow to each state and each local public health jurisdiction with a Metropolitan Medical Response Team."

I also hope that the Department of Homeland Security will coordinate with the Department of Health and Human Services in its bioterrorism preparedness activities. Significant cooperation between the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services is critical given that our nation's first responders have been, and will continue to be, intimately involved in preparing for and responding to bioterrorism threats.

In the last week, these new reports remind us that we must do more to protect our nation from future terrorist attacks. Our front line soldiers and public health officials are those who need the most assistance and it is our job in Washington to provide them with the assistance and guidance they need to meet our shared goal-a stronger and safer America.

If you do not already have a plan in place to attract more experts, I hope that you will work with me to enact this legislation so we can hire our future doctors, public health officials, and scientists and so that we do not wait until the retirement notices start stacking. Clearly, we need to start training our bioterrorism experts of tomorrow today.

Sincerely yours,

Hillary Rodham Clinton

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