The Galveston County Daily News

A bill allowing the University of Texas Medical Branch to withhold certain information about deadly germs at the Galveston National Laboratory has passed the house and senate and Monday was awaiting approval by Gov. Rick Perry.

The bill exempts the medical branch from disclosing information about:

• The specific location of a select agent;

• Information that identifies an individual whose name appears in documentation relating to the chain of custody of select agents, including a materials transfer agreement; and

• The identity of an individual authorized to possess, use or access a select agent.

Bowing to public pressure, legislators changed House Bill 2556 — later attached to Senate Bill 1182 — to disallow the medical branch from keeping secret information about:

• The identity of the select agents present at a facility;

• The identity of an individual faculty member or employee whose name appears or will appear on published research; and

• Public information relating to contracts.

However, the bill does say that if a resident of another state is present in Texas and is authorized to possess, use, or access a select agent in conducting research or other work at a Texas facility, the national lab has to disclose information that would be subject to disclosure under the laws of the state in which the person resides.

Researchers at the national laboratory — which opened in November — plan to develop drugs and vaccines to battle infectious disease, including deadly pathogens.

“Thanks to the valuable input of the Galveston community and our local legislators, this bill strikes an effective balance between the safety and security of UTMB’s researchers, staff and facilities; helps safeguard vital research collaboration; and enables our ongoing commitment to transparency and preserves our ability to share information with the public,” Dr. Stanley M. Lemon, principal investigator of the Galveston National Laboratory, said in a prepared statement.

Medical branch officials and the bill’s author, state Sen. Joan Huffman, have argued that legislation is meant to protect the identity of people and the location of the agents, not to shield information. The intent of the bill is to protect agreements with other laboratories and the names of low-level employees who might be targeted by people opposed to research conducted at such facilities.

But, opponents of the bill say the legislation is too broad. Texas laws already protect security-sensitive information and the medical branch can’t show how state codes have failed the Galveston National Laboratory.

Fred Hartman, chair of the legislative advisory committee for the Texas Daily Newspaper Association and the Texas Press Association, said the bill creates an unnecessary layer of secrecy.

He was holding out hope that Perry would veto the bill.

“The people at UTMB might mean well, but that’s not a good enough reason to make this information secret,” he said.

“There’s too much potential for abuse and wrongdoing and this would be a potentially dangerous law, if enacted.”

The 186,267-square-foot Galveston National Laboratory is one of two approved in 2003 by the National Institutes of Health after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.