Highlights for March 14, 2002

I. Key Department/Bureau News
Nothing to report this week.

II. Agency Work on Presidential Initiatives

• USGS to Build U.S. Biosafety Web Site: The U.S. has a responsibility to make its biosafety information available to the international Biosafety Clearing-House (BCH), an information resource currently under development by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). As the U.S. Focal Point for CBD informatics activities, the USGS National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) will develop a harmonized U.S. biosafety web site which will bring together biosafety data held by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration and which will be interoperable with the international BCH. Because this is a high priority for the U.S. State Department, State will provide $160,000 to support the USGS effort. It is anticipated that an initial version of the U.S. site will be available by August 2002. (Barbara Bauldock, Reston, VA, 703-648-4295)

III. Notable Congressional Activity
Nothing to report this week.

III. Press/Media Inquiries
Nothing to report this week.

V. Key FOIA Requests
Nothing to report this week.