George W. Bush

About the author: George W. Bush was elected the forty-third president of the United States in November 2000. Prior to that, he was governor of Texas. He gave the following speech in Pittsburgh on February 5, 2002.

The government is proposing to provide $1.6 billion in funds for state and local governments to help hospitals and others improve their ability to respond to bioterrorist attacks. It also plans to develop new tests and treatments for potential bioterror weapons such as anthrax and smallpox. The proposed budget will contribute a total of almost $6 billion to defense against bioterrorism, an increase of more than 300 percent. This expenditure will benefit the health system as a whole as well as strengthening defense against bioterrorism.

Homeland defense takes many forms. One, of course, is to secure our borders...