[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 56 (Tuesday, April 8, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H2913-H2914]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        AUTISM AND VACCINATIONS

  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, on a regular basis I come down 
here and talk about children who are autistic and the reasons for it. 
We have been receiving letters from across the country from literally 
hundreds and probably thousands of parents who have autistic children, 
and they do not know what to do about it, and all of them believe their 
children were damaged by the mercury that is in vaccines. It has been 
in children's vaccines for a long, long time.
  Children get between 25 and 30 vaccinations before they go to school, 
and up until just recently almost all of them contained thimerosal 
which was 50 percent mercury. We all know mercury is toxic to the 
brain, and yet they had it as a preservative in vaccines. And our 
children, in my opinion, and scientists and doctors from across the 
globe and here in the States believe that mercury in the vaccines was 
one of the major causes.
  Here on this easel I have pictures of probably 50 or 60 or 70 kids 
who were damaged by the mercury in the vaccines, and I have letters 
that I read every night. We have a system here called the Vaccine 
Injury Compensation Fund that is supposed to take care of these 
children if they are damaged by vaccines. It has $1.8 billion in it. It 
is supposed to protect the pharmaceutical companies from lawsuits, and 
yet these parents of these kids have had a very difficult time getting 
satisfaction and restitution from that fund, and many of them, because 
there was a 3-year statute of limitations, could not even get in the 
fund.
  The reason I bring this up right now is because we are in the process 
of working on legislation that would deal with this problem, that would 
help these kids who missed the opportunity by getting in that 3-year 
window of opportunity to be put in the program so that their case could 
be reviewed on a case-by-case basis by the special master. These 
families are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, they are going 
bankrupt, selling their homes, borrowing money, doing everything to 
help their children, and there is nowhere for them to turn. We need to

[[Page H2914]]

make sure that they have access to this fund for which it was created 
and not have to go to courts to have class action lawsuits. And that is 
what we are working on with the other body and the majority leader in 
the other body to get done.
  I want to read just a couple of letters that come from these people 
who have no place to turn. Here is a letter that came from a Marcy 
Kelly from Mullica Hill, New Jersey, and she writes:
  ``My son turned 4 in October, 2002, and was diagnosed with autism 
after a long history of medical problems that began at 2 months, within 
1 week of his first series of thimerosal-containing vaccines. His 
immune system, weakened to where he couldn't handle viruses (resulting 
in recurring ear infections and RSV), he had reflux, terrible allergies 
and eczema, and a reaction to his MMR shot that is documented to have 
caused vomiting nightly for 6 months post vaccination and 2 years of 
diarrhea. Medical tests show toxic levels of metals, reduced 
glutathione, malabsorption, maldigestion, severe allergies, and liver 
problems, all common in those poisoned by mercury. He regressed into 
autism between 18 and 24 months.'' As a father and grandfather, you 
understand the heartbreak that I felt.
  This is a picture of him.
  ``We have spent well over $100,000 in the last 2 years, mostly on 
medical visits, tests, and therapies. Our insurance company, Aetna US 
Healthcare, stopped paying for these funds.'' So they have noplace to 
go.
  And she ends up by saying, ``I understand that you intend to take our 
stories before Congress, not individually but as a group. If you could 
take a single child (or family with more than one child on the 
spectrum) and pile up all of the medical and therapy bills, ADA drill 
books and materials, and supplements used to help them heal from the 
effects of vaccines, it would be quite mountainous and tell a story as 
well. God be with you and with other politicians as they vote on 
matters relating to autism. In the quiet of night, if politicians would 
ask themselves the question `what is right?' the answer in their hearts 
would be to help their children and their families.''
  We have the ability to do that, and we must do something and we must 
do it very soon, because these families are suffering; and we have to 
be very diligent to make sure the other body does not put some language 
in the bill that would be like what was in the homeland security bill 
which protected pharmaceutical companies but not the children.
  I yield to the gentlewoman from California.
  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman so very much. I caught 
his presentation on the screen as I was going through the cloakroom, 
and I cannot tell him how proud I am of him for dealing with this issue 
of autism and children. I commend him for his interest. I commend him 
for the work that he is doing on it.
  I came in close contact with children who were autistic when I 
started in the Head Start program.

                              {time}  1815

  Prior to the Head Start program, we had children who were autistic 
and had other kinds of deficiencies that never got discovered, and that 
is one reason I love the Head Start program so very, very much. But the 
most interesting and the most challenging and the most undertold story 
was the story of children with autism.
  I join the gentleman in his efforts and will do everything that I can 
to bring attention and resources to help these families of children who 
have autism.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, we will 
contact the gentlewoman on that legislation. We will be down here every 
night that is available to talk about this issue. I thank the 
gentlewoman.

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