[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 136 (Thursday, October 26, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1946-E1947]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    THE VACCINE INJURY COMPENSATION PROGRAM IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2000

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                           HON. JOHN L. MICA

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 26, 2000

  Mr. MICA. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing the ``Vaccine Injury 
Compensation Program Improvement Act of 2000,'' legislation designed to 
revise and improve the standards applied to petitions for compensating 
injuries associated with vaccines administered to children when the 
claims are deemed not to be covered by the ``Vaccine Table.'' The Table 
is used in the program to create presumptions favoring compensation 
coverage under very limited circumstances and pursuant to specific 
criteria.
  Mr. Speaker, I have chaired oversight hearings of the House 
Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources 
devoted to problems and issues in the National Vaccine Injury 
Compensation Program. Our full committee, the House Committee on 
Government Reform, also has been actively engaged in oversight of this 
important program. As a product of our hearings and extensive oversight 
activities, members of the subcommittee and full committee in a 
bipartisan manner and without objection, passed on October 5, 2000, the 
report entitled; ``The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program: Addressing 
the Needs and Improving Practices.''
  Among the recommendations of this report is the need to devise an 
alternative standard for determining compensation for petitioners who 
claim vaccine-related injuries, but whose petitions are not covered by 
the Vaccine

[[Page E1947]]

Table. As the report correctly explains, Congress recognized 
deficiencies in scientific studies on the topic of vaccine-related 
injuries, and intended to provide a fair and reasonable opportunity for 
petitioners to demonstrate vaccine-relatedness. If a significant 
relationship or association could be proven, compensation coverage was 
intended. Regretfully, the current wording of the statute has been 
interpreted and applied in a manner that requires a traditional tort 
``causation'' legal analysis. If the traditional legal approach had 
been intended, Congress would simply have allowed these cases to be 
resolved through traditional tort liability litigation. That was not 
the desire of Congress when the program was established; it is not the 
desire of Congress today. Accordingly, a revision to the petition 
standards is needed to ensure that reasonable and fair determinations 
of vaccine association and relatedness are provided. That is precisely 
what this legislation does. It does not address various other reforms--
some favored by the involved federal agencies and some not, some needed 
and some not--that are intended to improve the program further. The 
focus of this bill is simply to revise and clarify the standard used in 
adjudicating certain petitions. This reform will foreclose the practice 
of effectively denying petitions when scientific studies do not 
squarely address the specific circumstances presented, and will provide 
a reasonable, fair and appropriately flexible standard for examining 
evidence and determining vaccine injury compensation coverage.
  The revised language of this legislation provides an approach and 
standard for coverage that is similar to that used in determining 
medical treatment benefits to veterans who claim illnesses presumed to 
be related to exposures to Agent Orange.

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