House, Senate differ on flu plan

House, Senate differ on flu plan: "House, Senate differ on flu plan
By Jeffrey Young

The initial response by House and Senate Republicans to President Bush’s new request for billions of dollars to pay for pandemic-flu preparedness demonstrates the divide between the two chambers on rising government spending.

While the Senate GOP leadership moved quickly in an attempt to accommodate at least part of the $7.1 billion request, the House leadership indicated that rank-and-file members would demand that the new spending be offset.

Underlying these differences may be the recognition that the administration’s unprecedented federal investment in public health since 2001 has stood as only a first installment.

The bulk of the president’s call for $7.1 billion would go toward developing, purchasing and stockpiling vaccines and drugs and to promoting the expansion of the domestic vaccine manufacturing system.

Nearly $1 billion, however, is targeted to the public-health system, including money for state and local governments, and would build on money distributed in the past four years for similar efforts to ready the country for a bioterrorist attack."