"Bush seeks $7.1 billion for avian-flu defense"

Read the entire Yahoo! News/Reuters article.

"President George W. Bush asked Congress for $7.1 billion in emergency funding on Tuesday to prepare the United States for a feared avian-influenza pandemic by building stockpiles of drugs and vaccines and encouraging vaccine makers to modernize.

"Bush's plan would also bolster efforts to globally monitor the disease.

"To respond to a pandemic we must have emergency plans in place in all 50 states, in every local community. We must ensure that all levels of government are ready to act to contain an outbreak," Bush said in a speech at the National Institutes of Health.

"Congress did not immediately respond, but the Senate was scraping together $3.9 billion in an amendment to a spending bill.

"The White House request includes $1.2 billion to make 20 million more doses of the current experimental vaccine against H5N1 avian influenza, $2.8 billion to accelerate new flu-vaccine technology and $1 billion to stockpile more antiviral drugs."