House panel calls plan for tracking avian flu 'inadequate'

House International Relations Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., and ranking member Tom Lantos, D-Calif., on Wednesday criticized President Bush's budget as inadequate for tracking avian flu abroad -- about $250 million out of a $7.1 billion budget.

Hyde, who called the hearing on avian flu just as Congress is determining where to get the $7.1 billion for Bush's overall avian flu plan, suggested that earmarking such a small amount for tracking the disease abroad "might not be adequate to this task."

"Our top priority must be to make every effort humanly possible to detect and contain an avian flu outbreak before it even hits the United States," Lantos said. "In that regard, I am singularly unimpressed by the administration's proposal to spend only 3 percent of its $7 billion avian flu budget on tackling the virus where it is already emerging -- in markets and small villages across the continent of Asia." "I recommend that we, at a minimum, double this amount," Lantos said.

Hyde did not say how much the 3 percent should be increased.

Lantos said he and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., are working on legislation to further address the issue. A Lantos spokeswoman said later that details on the package -- including how much to spend fighting avian flu abroad -- are still being worked out.

Scientists are concerned that avian flu could bring a worldwide pandemic if the virus ever mutates so that it can be passed person-to-person. During the hearing, Kent Hill, assistant administrator of the Bureau for Global Health at the U.S. Agency for International Development, noted that Bush's earmarking of $251 million to support international efforts to detect and contain outbreaks of avian flu is part of a "comprehensive response to avian and pandemic influenza."

Hill said the strategy, in addition to efforts to contain the flu overseas, also includes the stockpiling of vaccines and antiviral drugs, and beefing up the ability at the local level to respond to widespread disease.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., said it is important to provide incentives to farmers, particularly those overseas, to come forward if they suspect a chicken or other bird is carrying or has died from avian flu.

Hill said because timing is so crucial, the farmers have to come forward quickly. He said one idea being floated is to replace the diseased or dead birds with chicks that have already been vaccinated against the disease. "Some countries are already providing compensation," Hill said, adding that they need to do better.

Earlier this week, House and Senate leaders said they were looking at the fiscal 2006 Defense appropriations bill as the vehicle to carry Bush's $7.1 billion plan. But disagreements over protecting flu vaccine manufacturers from liability could complicate that plan.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the NIH, said the liability issue "continues to come up" in his talks with drug manufacturers.

"We need to get the issue of liability off the table," Fauci said. "Because while it's not going to stop the show, so to speak, there is an increasing reluctance to get involved with something if there's the possibility of a lawsuit."

Fauci said the government will have about 6.5 million doses of an experimental "pre-pandemic" vaccine for the H5N1 avian flu virus available by January.