[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 62 (Tuesday, April 29, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E795]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E795]]
                            SMALLPOX VACCINE

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. HENRY A. WAXMAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 29, 2003

  Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, today the House of Representatives passed 
legislation authorizing a smallpox vaccine compensation program for 
first-responders. The legislation we passed today is an improvement 
over the legislation that the House rejected several weeks ago. Under 
the plan we passed today nurses, firefighters and other first-
responders will not have to rush to be vaccinated in order to make an 
arbitrary deadline for compensation eligibility. First-responders who 
are permanently disabled as a result of the smallpox vaccine will 
receive a portion of their wages that is not subject to a lifetime cap. 
And first-responders who are out of work for more than ten days will 
receive reimbursement for lost wages from the first day of work that 
they missed.
  These are important improvements. However, the program still falls 
short and I am disappointed that the Administration nickeled-and-dimed 
first-responders throughout this process. The Republicans refused to 
guarantee these brave men and women who volunteer to take the smallpox 
vaccine to protect all of us in case of a bioterror attack at the same 
level of compensation that would be available to members of Congress if 
we are injured on the job. Nurses, firefighters, and police officers 
deserve a better law than this. Given that the risk of injury from the 
vaccine is several tens per million, and the Administration only 
expects to vaccinate several million, ensuring full and fair 
compensation would certainly have been affordable.
  I want this program to work. I want first-responders to have adequate 
access to compensation so they feel comfortable about taking the 
smallpox vaccine. If this program is going to succeed, the 
Administration is going to have to make good on promises it made to us 
that it refused to put in the legislation. These promises include: 
assuring adequate funding so that states can provide appropriate 
education and screening of first-responders volunteering for the 
vaccine; indexing the annual cap on wage replacement to inflation; and 
allowing first-responders who are injured by the vaccine to deduct 
their compensation from their federal taxes. In response to concerns 
that the legislation does not allow for judicial review of compensation 
determinations, the Administration has said that the Secretary of 
Health and Human Services intends to run this program in a fair and 
generous way. Ensuring that these promises are fulfilled is a critical 
component of meeting that pledge.
  I would like to thank Representative Capps, Representative Dingell, 
Representative Brown, Senator Kennedy and others, as well as their 
staffs, for their commitment to this issue and for working with me for 
the last six months to improve this program so that first-responders 
will have some assurance that if they are injured by the smallpox 
vaccine, they will receive at least some measure of compensation.

                          ____________________