Note: Uber Operations has been involved in a Pan Flu Grant sponsored by the CDC, APHL, FDOH, and TDSHS.

By Ben Pershing

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee announced today it will hold a hearing this Wednesday on the federal government’s response to the swine flu outbreak, even as a controversy is brewing over the role a senior member of the panel played in blocking funds for just this kind of public health emergency.

The liberal blogosphere has been percolating this morning with criticism of Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), the top Republican on HSGAC, for having helped to strip close to $900 million for pandemic influenza preparedness from the economic stimulus package back in February. That bill passed with the crucial support of Collins and just two other Republicans after a handful of controversial or arguably non-stimulative items were removed, including the pandemic funding.

“Everybody in the room is concerned about a pandemic flu,” Collins said at the time, referring to the stimulus negotiations. “But does it belong in this bill? Should we have $870 million in this bill? No, we should not.”

Now that the swine flu outbreak has precipitated an official public health emergency, critics are piling on. John Nichols writes in The Nation that Collins and her fellow flu funding opponents — including Karl Rove — “were just playing politics, in the exceptionally narrow and irresponsible manner that characterized the Republican response to the stimulus debate.” Another blogger put it more simply: “Way to have foresight, Susan.”

But Collins’s office is pushing back against the charge that she somehow put the nation at risk by opposing the inclusion of pandemic money in the stimulus. The record does show that the Maine senator is a longtime proponent of increased funding for flu preparedness, and in December, her office points out, Collins wrote to Senate leaders asking for a $905 million increase for the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Even during the stimulus debate, Collins said repeatedly that she backed the idea of boosting the preparedness budget, but just didn’t think it made sense to include the money in the stimulus measure because it was a stretch to consider it stimulative (though some analysts have pointed out that a widespread outbreak right now would make a bad economy even worse). Instead, Collins wanted the money added in the regular appropriations process, and the omnibus spending bill that was approved in March did include a small increase in funding for pandemic flu research.

To be fair, Collins wasn’t the only senator who criticized the pandemic funding back in February. At the time, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) referred to the flu money as “one of the little porky things” that the House had put in the stimulus measure but the Senate had taken out.

Most importantly, Collins’s spokesman points out, “There is no evidence that federal efforts to address the swine flu outbreak have been hampered by a lack of funds.” And at the moment, the outbreak is not actually a pandemic. Collins and the others who led the fight to axe the flu money three months ago can only hope that doesn’t change. If it does turn out the government doesn’t have enough cash to fight the problem, Wednesday’s hearing could get interesting.

By Ben Pershing | April 27, 2009; 2:45 PM ET Purse Strings , Senate
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