Pandemic Plan Vague in Spots, GAO Reports

WASHINGTON — Although billions of dollars have been spent to prepare for a feared influenza pandemic, troubling gaps still exist in the government's strategy for coping with a rapidly spreading disease, a new congressional report says.

The Government Accountability Office said Monday that federal officials, especially those in the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, need to carry out "rigorous and robust exercises to expose weaknesses in plans."

The national strategy for coping with a pandemic gives HHS responsibility for medical responses, and assigns DHS responsibility for "overall incident management and federal coordination."

But it is not clear when the secretary of health and human services would lead the response and when the secretary of homeland security would be in charge, the GAO said.

For example, what would happen when critical national infrastructure is threatened because critical personnel would be too sick to distribute food supplies or keep power plants running?

"The extent this would be considered a medical response ... or when it would be under the secretary of homeland security's leadership as part of his or her responsibility for ensuring that critical infrastructure is protected is unclear," GAO investigators said.

"It's alarming to learn that this far into the process, key federal leadership roles in a pandemic have been inadequately defined," Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said in a news release. Waxman is chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which released the report.

The press release quoted Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, the ranking Republican on the committee, as saying that he "wholeheartedly" supported the recommendation for federal exercises.

"In a post-Katrina world, we cannot afford to be unprepared," Davis said.

Also endorsing the report's recommendations were Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, and Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee.