The Journal endorses Burr’s bioterrorism bill, but with a word of caution:

Sen. Richard Burr’s bioterrorism defense bill is finally law, and it brings some much needed common sense to the nation’s preparations for a new kind of enemy attack. It says that the government will work with pharmaceutical companies to prepare bioterror defenses such as vaccines and antidotes…..

Whenever the federal government begins a major new initiative, skeptics have plenty of fodder. This law certainly will be on their watch lists, given the ineptitude of some of Bush’s previous appointees, the failure of the BioShield program, the lack of public accessibility to some of BARDA’s records and, finally, the amount of cash involved.

Congress, at Burr’s initiative, has written a good law. Now it is up to the executive branch to make that law work for the American people.

Rather than trust that that will happen, Burr had better keep an eye on how the administration moves forward.