Responding to service members' complaints of program insensitivity to adverse health effects, inadequate medical record-keeping, & heavy-handed program operation, the Committee initiated an oversight investigation into the design & implementation of the DoD force-wide, mandatory Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program. The Committee measured the program against this standard: any expanded use of the same vaccine should be undertaken only with the greatest care & only to the extent necessary. As currently designed & implemented, the Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program fails on both counts. The Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program lacks a consistent standard of care & is designed to reach far beyond those at risk.

Witnesses: Rudy de Leon, Dep. Sec. of Def.; Tommy Franks, Jr., U.S. Army, Commander in Chief, U.S. Central Command; Randall West, U.S. Marine Corps, Sr. Advisor to the Dep. Sec. of Def. for Chem. & Biol. Protection; J. Jarrett Clinton, Public Health Serv., 1st Assist. to the Assist. Sec. of Def. for Health Affairs; Anna Johnson-Winegar, Dep. Assist. Sec. of Def. for Chem. & Biol. Def.; Gaston Randolph, Jr., U.S. Army, Dir., AVIP; Fuad El-Hibri, CEO, Bioport Corp., accomp. by Robert Myers, Chief Scientific Officer, & Robert Kramer, CFO, Bioport Corp.; April Stephenson, Chief, Policy Programs Div., Defense Contract Audit Agency; & Kathryn Zoon, Dir., Center for Biologics Evaluation & Res., FDA

Witnesses: Rear Admiral Lowell E. Jacoby, U.S. Navy, Director, Intelligence Directorate, Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Rudy de Leon, Deputy Secretary of Defense; David R. Oliver, Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition & Technology; Lt. Gen. Ronald R. Blanck, U.S. Army, Surgeon General of the Army; Major General Randall L. West, U.S. Marine Corps, Special Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel & Readiness; Carol R. Schuster, Associate Director for National Security Preparedness Issues, National Security & International Affairs Div., U.S. General Accounting Office.