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With full approval of their plans, states, territories and municipalities receive the remaining 80 percent of their share of nearly $1.1 billion in bioterrorism grants and can begin building stronger public health systems, covering the spectrum from stronger disease surveillance to better-prepared hospitals.

"This is the first time that federal, state and local governments have come together on a unified plan to strengthen our public health system and better prepare to respond to a terrorism attack," Secretary Thompson said. "With these plans, we can now more aggressively build our health systems, providing greater protection and care for our citizens. These plans will usher in a new era of cooperation between all levels of government when it comes to protecting the public's health."

President Bush signed into law in January a bioterrorism appropriations bill that sent $1.1 billion to 62 states, territories and three major cities (Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City) to strengthen local capabilities to deal with public health emergencies related to terrorism. The District of Columbia was counted as a state in the funding formula.

In releasing details of the grant program on Jan. 31, Secretary Thompson asked governors and the three mayors, in conjunction with their health departments, to develop comprehensive plans to use the grant money to strengthen preparedness. The secretary immediately released 20 percent of the money for each state or municipality, with the remaining 80 percent to be released upon approval of each plan. The same rules applied for the eight U.S. territories.

Over the past month, HHS experts have reviewed and approved the majority of each plan. Twenty-four states and two cities had their plans fully approved. Twenty-four states and one city most of their plans approved but had some funds withheld pending further review or refinement of a portion of the plan. And two states, Washington, D.C., and all eight U.S. territories were given an extension for their plans. Information on each state is available at www.hhs.gov/news/press/2002pres/20020606b.html. Information on benchmarks is available at www.hhs.gov/news/press/2002pres/20020606a.html. A chart is also available at www.hhs.gov/ophp/funding/.

Secretary Thompson praised governors, state public health departments and municipal leaders for developing their plans in such a short period of time. The states overall did a strong job of meeting the established benchmarks, which is reflected by the fact that states received all or most of their funds.

Secretary Thompson said HHS will now work with states, cities and territories on implementation of their plans, providing technical assistance and expertise. The department has asked states for progress reports on Oct. 1.

"It is impressive how quickly states and municipalities were able to put together these plans. It shows how serious states are taking the need for preparedness and their dedication to getting the job done," Secretary Thompson said. "Now that we have good plans, we need to get on with building. There's more work to do. We will continue to work with states on implementing their plans and strengthening areas of their plans that need more work."

States and local governments will use grant money to further develop comprehensive bioterrorism preparedness plans, upgrade infectious disease surveillance and investigation, enhance the readiness of hospital systems to deal with large numbers of casualties, expand public health laboratory and communications capacities, and improve connectivity between hospitals and city, local and state health departments to enhance disease reporting.

The HHS preparedness funding is divided into two parts. HHS' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is providing $918 million to support bioterrorism, infectious diseases, and public health emergency preparedness activities statewide. HHS' Health Resources and Services Administration is providing $125 million for states to create regional hospital plans to respond in the event of a terrorism attack. Hospitals play a critical role in both identifying and responding to any potential terrorism attack or disease outbreak. HHS experts have reviewed each state and municipal plan as to whether they have met benchmark criteria for these two areas.

Separately, HHS' Office of Emergency Preparedness will provide $15 million this year to local communities to further build and strengthen support of the Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS). The MMRS funding will add an additional 25 new cities to those which have already received funding in past years and will mean that 80 percent of the U.S. population will be covered by an MMRS plan. MMRS contracts are especially aimed at improving local jurisdictions' ability to respond to the possible release of a chemical or biological disease agent, but also serve to improve local response to any event involving mass casualties.

While bioterrorism preparedness is the impetus behind these grants and plans, Secretary Thompson said the ultimate benefit will be a stronger, more unified public health system that is better able to care for the public -- whether during the routine of the winter flu season or the stress of a terrorism attack.

"For too long, we've neglected our public health system in America," Secretary Thompson said. "Now we have resources to build it up and we must seize this opportunity. It will pay large dividends in our ability to care for our citizens."

A table showing state-by-state funding levels is available at www.hhs.gov/news/press/2002pres/states.html.

A table showing MMRS funding levels is available at www.hhs.gov/news/press/2002pres/mmrs.html.

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