ASM sent a letter on 12 July to the chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, Representative Bennie Thompson, and other members of the Committee, providing comments and analysis of the House version of the WMD Prevention and Preparedness Act of 2010 (HR 5498). The provisions of the House bill differ in some areas from those of the companion Senate bill, S 1649, which ASM commented on in a September 2009 letter to Senator Lieberman (http://www.asm.org/Lieberman). In the letter to the House Homeland Security Committee, ASM said it supported the provision in the House bill that gives the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Agriculture (USDA) the primary role for select agents. ASM said that scientific expertise stands a the center of a Tier 1 Material Threat Agent designation and that HHS and USDA are best equipped to make such a designation in consultation with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). ASM said it is critical to ensure input from the scientific and public health communities in determining which agents should be designated as Tier 1 agents requiring greater security measures and which agents may have lesser security requirements. ASM recommended that Congress recognize the appropriate step that the Administration has taken in the Executive Order on Biological Agents and Toxins and support the directive to revise the Select Agent Regulations within their existing statutory authorities. The ASM letter to Representative Thompson is online at http://www.asm.org/index.php/policy/wmdactof2010-comments.html.