Sen. Bob Casey Blames Ebola Unpreparedness on Sequestration

 "One of the problems here is a basic funding problem. All those folks in Washington who thought sequestration, the indiscriminate across-the-board cuts, was a good idea, I think, should rethink that because this is a program, the specific program is the hospital preparedness program. That’s one element of that legislation that you referred to, but that one program has been cut by about 50 percent in about 11 years. So instead of being funded at a level of about $515 million, it’s been cut to about $255. And that’s even with a level of authorization, meaning that has the -- they have the authority to fund it at least to $375 million. So dramatic cuts to this program, which helps on coordination, it helps on training, it prepares hospitals with checklists and all kinds of support. So the hospitals need more help and the United States Congress should provide it ...

When we are back and we start considering this year’s or, I should say next year’s appropriation bills, we should make sure this program is fully funded and make sure that hospitals are using the dollars in the manner they are intended, meaning using the dollars for this training, having checklists, having drills - all of the activities that you would hope would support a fully functional preparation program so we don't have some of the breaches we've seen so far."