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By Maggie Fox and Joanne Kenen

WASHINGTON, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Members of both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate vowed on Wednesday to get rid of controversial provisions, slipped quietly into the Homeland Security Act, that they say benefit vaccine makers at the expense of children with autism and other diseases.

But one of the authors of the provisions said they were meant to ensure the country will have vaccines to give children.

Vaccine critics say they can cause autism, and many have filed lawsuits. Studies have found no link between vaccines and autism but vaccine makers say they have spent hundreds of millions of dollars defending against these suits. Companies say it is one big reason that so many of them have stopped making vaccines.

A huge outcry followed the news that provisions making it harder to sue vaccine makers had been added to the bill creating the federal Department of Homeland Security last month. Groups advocating safer vaccines immediately decried the move as being aimed at protecting rich companies.

Several members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, took up the call, and on Wednesday several vowed to remove the provisions when Congress reconvenes in January.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat, called the provision an "outrage." "It is really government at its worst," she told a news conference.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, called it a "huge gift to drug companies ... at the expense of autistic children."

But Tennessee Republican Sen. Bill Frist said the provisions came from a bill he was sponsoring that was aimed at encouraging more companies to make vaccines.

"The threat of liability has become a barrier to our ability to protect the American people," he said. "Three provisions from my bill were put into the Homeland Security Bill," he added. "It's a big mystery who did this."

Only four companies now make the vaccines routinely given to children to protect them against measles, mumps, whooping cough, polio, hepatitis, diphtheria, tetanus, chickenpox, meningitis and pneumococcal disease.

They are Merck and Co. Inc. (nyse: MRK - news - people), GlaxoSmithKline Plc <GSK.L>, Wyeth (nyse: MRK - news - people) and Aventis-Pasteur <AVEP.PA>. Just two of those companies -- Merck and Wyeth -- are U.S.-based.

The country had a severe shortage of vaccines this past year that left thousands of children under-vaccinated. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is tracking reports of disease outbreaks to see if there have been any extra cases of childhood disease because of the shortage.

LAWYERS FIND LAWSUIT LOOPHOLE

Frist said trial lawyers found a loophole around the Vaccine Injury Compensation Act of 1986, which was designed to provide a pool of money to take care of children who have side-effects from vaccines.

Frist said that trial lawyers had begun suing the makers of thimerosol, a mercury-based preservative recently removed from childhood vaccines. Eli Lilly and Co. (nyse: LLY - news - people) has been a primary target.

"Trial lawyers don't like it because manufacturers are the huge pockets," he said. Studies have found no link between thimerosol and autism.

The 1986 act is aimed at preventing multiple lawsuits against vaccine makers, hospitals, nurses and others who give vaccines to people, with the idea being that vaccines provide for the greater good of society, and thus society should bear the burden of any side-effects.

"It was supposed to be no-fault," Dr. Robert Chen, chief of vaccine safety and development for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a recent interview.

Copyright 2002, Reuters News Service