[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 43 (Tuesday, March 18, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H1925-H1926]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          EXTENDING STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS FOR AUTISM VICTIMS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, it used to be that one child in 
10,000 was autistic. Now it is one in 200. We have had a 50-fold 
increase in the number of children that are autistic in this country. 
It is an absolute epidemic.
  One of the causes, according to leading scientists around the world, 
is the mercury that was in children's vaccines. Mercury, can we believe 
that, being in a child's vaccine? It is toxic to the brain, it causes 
neurological disorders, and yet we have been using it as a preservative 
for years and years and years.
  One of the things that I am very concerned about is that many of the 
parents who have autistic children missed the 3-year statute of 
limitations to file for money to help with their child's damaged brain 
because they did not even know their child was damaged by mercury, and 
the thimerosal in these vaccines until the 3-year statute of 
limitations had expired.
  Now, there has been legislation proposed at various times, especially 
last year in the homeland security bill, which would have eliminated 
any possibility of those people going to court to get satisfaction for 
their child's damaged brain. Their child is ruined for life, and they 
cannot get into the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund, so there is no 
recourse.
  Mr. Speaker, there is legislation that I have sponsored this year and 
legislation that Senator Frist has sponsored

[[Page H1926]]

in the other body that will deal with this problem. But we have to make 
absolutely sure that the legislation does open up the process so that 
these parents will have an opportunity to participate in the Vaccine 
Injury Compensation Fund, which has $1.8 billion in it right now.
  Now, every night I am going to be coming down here reading letters 
from these parents who have had damaged children. I have thousands of 
them. It is extremely important that my colleagues and people across 
this country know what has been going on.
  Here is a letter from a lady named Mary Cutler from Brick, New 
Jersey. She said, ``Shortly after my son received his second and third 
rounds of DTP/Hib at 5 months and 7 months of age and then hepatitis B 
at 9 months of age, he began to be continually sick with ear infections 
and diarrhea and was late on meeting his milestones. After he received 
his first MMR shot at age 15 months, he began to head bang and wake up 
during the night.
  ``It was not until 2000 when I came across a report on thimerosal in 
vaccines and the comparison of the symptoms of mercury poisoning and 
autism did I find a true answer. My son has been tested. Mercury was 
found in his body and he has been undergoing chelation treatment for 
mercury poisoning. We test his urine often and after 2 years of 
chelation, there is still mercury coming out of his body.''
  Mercury that in all probability was put in by these shots that 
children get before they go to school.
  ``He has since made and continues to make steady improvements,'' but 
there is still mercury in him and it is coming out. ``He became more 
and more verbal,'' and so and so forth.
  She ends up by saying, ``All of this has come at a great cost, both 
financially,'' and they have heavy credit debt and they have had to 
take out second and third mortgages on their home, ``and emotionally to 
our family. My husband and I have not had a night out or a vacation in 
years or even been able to get a babysitter.
  ``Since we did not find out about the vaccine thimerosal ingredient 
until 2000, the 3-year limitation rule has put us outside the statute 
of limitations for the current Vaccine Injury Compensation Act. We hope 
someday our son may live a normal life, but it is a constant worry as 
to what will happen to him as we age and/or die and we are no longer 
able to take care of him. The money that autism costs to families and 
society at large in terms of special education, Social Security, 
disability, et cetera cannot be ignored or hidden from the general 
public. Thimerosal/mercury is a known neurotoxin and that the vaccine 
manufacturers could use it at all and that they still use it especially 
without looking at the cumulative effects on babies is unconscionable 
and must be addressed so it does not happen again.''
  Mr. Speaker, we need to reopen the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund 
with a look-back provision for at least 1 year or 18 months so these 
families will have some recourse. They are losing their homes, they are 
going bankrupt, there are divorces being caused because they have no 
recourse and there is nothing they can do about their child's damaged 
brain. Our society and the pharmaceutical companies that had thimerosal 
in these vaccines should bear a responsibility, and that is why the 
Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund, which was designed to protect the 
pharmaceutical companies as well as to provide a nonadversarial 
procedure so parents could get financial assistance for their damaged 
children who were damaged by vaccines, that we need to make sure that 
it is open to these people who have damaged children, who have been 
damaged through the mercury that is in the childhood vaccines.

                              {time}  1845

  Children get 26 vaccines before they go to school, vaccinations. Many 
of them, many of them become autistic. It has gone, as I said before, 
from 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 200.
  This is something our government and our society can no longer 
ignore. We must hold the pharmaceutical companies accountable. We can 
do that with the kind of legislation we have been talking about; that 
is, to open up the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund for those families 
who missed that 3-year window of opportunity.
  This is something we cannot forget. We must get on with it. Here are 
a few pictures of some of these kids that have been damaged.

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