[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 88 (Monday, June 16, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H5383]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            FIGHTING AUTISM

  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, normally when I come down here, I 
bring a litany of pictures, a poster, to show the children who have 
been damaged, their parents believe, by the mercury that has been used 
in children's vaccines.
  Most Americans do not know this, but since the 1930s, many if not 
most of our vaccinations for children have contained a product called 
thimerosal, which is partially mercury, and Members know mercury is 
toxic to the human brain. As children started getting more and more 
vaccinations required by school boards across the country, the children 
got more and more mercury injected into their bodies. My grandson 
received nine shots in one day as an infant, and seven of those 
contained mercury. Within a matter of a couple of days he became 
autistic.
  People do not know what autism is unless they have experienced it. He 
ran around flapping his arms. He was a normal child, would walk, talk, 
smile and laugh like other children, but he flapped his arms, ran 
around banging his head against the wall, lost his ability to 
communicate, and he would not look you in the eye anymore. He has had 
constant diarrhea or constipation, alternating between the two.
  Parents across the country have experienced this. I have received 
thousands of letters from parents who have autistic children who are 
convinced that the mercury in these vaccines, which has a cumulative 
effect on the brain, was a contributing factor to their autism.
  About 10 years ago, 1 in 10,000 children were adjudged to be 
autistic. Now it is 1 in 200. We have a 50-fold increase. It is the 
biggest epidemic that we can remember as far as children are concerned, 
and yet the American public is not aware of it. We really have to do 
something about it.
  Back in the 1980s, in order to protect the pharmaceutical companies, 
we passed the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund Program, and it 
protected the pharmaceutical companies against lawsuits, but in 
exchange there was money being put into a fund from each vaccination to 
take care of those children or adults damaged by vaccinations. It now 
has $1.8 billion in it. It was supposed to be a nonadversarial program, 
but it has become very adversarial.
  The parents of these children who have had to mortgage their homes 
and sell their property to help their children, are going bankrupt to 
take care of their children, have not been able to get a dime out of 
the fund. And many of those parents did not get in within the 3-year 
time limit the law required because they were not aware that we had 
vaccination injury compensation program, and many were not aware that 
their children were adjudged autistic.
  Mr. Speaker, we have to open that program up so that every parent has 
access to the fund. If we can prove that mercury was the culprit in 
their children's autism, they ought to be able to get funds from that 
fund to take care of their family and all of the expenses that they are 
incurring.
  We need to get more money for the IDEA program to help with remedial 
education for these children that can be helped. If we do not deal with 
it right now, in 10-15 years when these children become adults, we are 
going to have a terrible problem because they will not be productive 
citizens. Many will have to be institutionalized, becoming a burden on 
the taxpayers. The parents of these children do not want to face that.
  Mr. Speaker, we really need to address this issue in both the House 
and the other body to make sure that every parent has access to the 
Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund and has a fair hearing, their fair day 
in court.

{time}  1930

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