25/03/2015
Citing USA TODAY's reporting, a Senate committee wants the "scientific justification" for limited soil sampling to detect deadly bacteria.
The Senate's homeland security committee, citing reporting by USA TODAY, wants answers from three federal agencies about their handling of an ongoing investigation of the risks posed by the recent release of a deadly bioterror bacteria from a laboratory in Louisiana, according to letters sent Wednesday.
Understanding how the bacteria got out of a high-security lab at the Tulane National Primate Research Center near New Orleans is "imperative" because of the potential bioterrorism threat posed by the organism, said the letters signed by committee chairman Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and ranking Democratic Sen. Thomas Carper of Delaware. The letters were sent to top officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency.