Special Interest Provision Protects Drug Companies At The Expense of Parents and Children In Homeland Security Bill - Statement by Senator Leahy

November 19, 2002

MR. LEAHY. Mr. President, tucked away into the Homeland Security bill is a small provision that no one seems to want to take credit for and yet it would bestow huge benefits on just one interest group. According to news accounts, Sections 714 through 716 of the Homeland Security bill were "something the White House wanted," not necessarily something the House or Senate wanted.

This explanation hardly clarifies why we are including such a far-reaching amendment that has nothing to do with homeland security in this bill. It hardly explains why, in these final days of the 107th Congress, we have decided so blatantly to put the interests of a few corporate pharmaceutical manufacturers before the interests of thousands of consumers, parents and children.

Sections 714, 715 and 716 basically give a "get out of court free card" to Eli Lilly and other manufacturers of thimerasol. Thimerasol is a mercury-based vaccine preservative that was used until recently in children's vaccines for everything from hepatitis B to diphtheria. Unfortunately, while these vaccines were intended to help protect our children's health, there are many health professionals and parents who now believe the opposite occurred.

Parents and health professionals are now concerned that using vaccines with thimerasol has exposed as many as 30 million American children to mercury levels far exceeding the "safe" level recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency. In 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Public Health Service began urging vaccine manufacturers to stop using thimerosal as quickly as possible. Since then, parents of autistic children around the country have gone to court to hold pharmaceutical companies liable for the alleged damage caused by thimerosal. Many of these parents now cite pharmaceutical manufacturer's own documents to show that they knew of the potential risk of using mercury-based preservatives back in the 1940s and yet did not stop its use.

Now, tucked away in the Homeland Security bill, we find this small provision that changes the definition of a vaccine manufacturer to include those companies that made vaccine preservatives. This small change to the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program cuts the legs out from under the families involved in pending lawsuits against thimerosal manufacturers. The amendment is obvious in its attempt to put up roadblocks to these cases. Those who brought the cases against manufacturers would lose their option of going to court while the manufacturers get new protections from large judgments.

Let's be clear about this provision. It has nothing to do with homeland security. Smallpox and anthrax vaccines do not use thimerosal. We should not take away the rights of our citizenry under the guise of trying to protect them.