[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 171 (Monday, December 31, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2021-E2023]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  HEALTH RELATED MATTERS FOR MY COLLEAGUES IN CONGRESS TO CONSIDER IN 
                                  2013

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. DAN BURTON

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, December 31, 2012

  Mr. BURTON. Mr. Speaker, as we close the 112th Congress and I prepare 
to retire from Congress, I would like to leave a few comments regarding 
health related matters for my colleagues who will return to the 113th 
Congress. Throughout my decades in public service, I have strived to 
give consideration to those whose issues fall through the cracks of our 
government, and to those who become targets of government authorities 
for daring to deliver or seek alternative therapies.
  Complementary and Alternative Therapies: While Chairman of the 
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, I initiated a 
comprehensive evaluation of the role of complementary and alternative 
therapies in our health care system. During this time we heard from 
researchers, practitioners, and patients about the value that 
complementary and alternative therapies can play in our health system. 
These therapies include acupuncture, massage therapy, traditional 
healing systems from various cultures around the world such as 
Traditional East Asian Medicine, Kampo, Native American Medicine, 
Homeopathy and energy therapies such as QiGong and Reiki as well as the 
use stress management tools and nutrition and dietary supplements. 
These also include conventional therapies used for purposes not yet 
recognized as mainstream such as Chelation Therapy for cardiovascular 
benefit.
  I hope my colleagues in 2013 will continue to protect access 
therapies and products so that Americans can continue to make their own 
choices in health care and retain their health freedom. I also believe 
a hard look at the management of resources provided to these issues is 
overdue. For instance, the first ever head to head research study 
looking at an alternative cancer treatment for pancreatic cancer as 
compared to the mainstream therapy was an absolute management disaster. 
Ten years, millions of dollars, and several federal investigations 
validating violations of patient protections by the academic 
conventional cancer therapy principal investigator has been swept under 
the rug by the National Institutes of Health's National Cancer 
Institute and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative 
Medicine. Too often, I hear that the studies that are funded, 
especially those on herbs are ``designed to fail''. After 20 years and 
more than a billion dollars, too little quality research on the 
therapies Americans are most interested has in has been conducted. When 
my colleague Senator Tom Harkin gave the initial instruction to the 
National Institutes of Health to ``investigate and validate'' therapies 
being used around the world, we all envisioned an aggressive campaign 
to go into the field and look at what is working an report this to the 
American people. Former Congressman Berkley Bedell championed this 
issue after being successfully treated with alternative therapies for 
Lyme disease and Prostate Cancer. Much good has been accomplished, but 
better work can and should be done.
  In early 2013, the results of a national multi-site Chelation Therapy 
study will be published. I hope my colleagues will review this study 
and look to the history of how doctors who have provided this therapy 
have been attacked for daring to use a therapy approved decades ago by 
the Food and Drug Administration to treat heavy metal exposure in 
children ``off label'' for cardiovascular benefit. Medicine is 
increasingly recognizing that exposure to lead, mercury and other heavy 
metals have on the body including the cardiovascular system. Chelation 
Therapy may be improving

[[Page E2022]]

cardiovascular health by removing heavy metals. This study was attacked 
by closed-minded individuals who oppose chelation therapy and all 
alternative therapies. Sadly, we have lost a decade in looking at the 
benefits of chelation therapy in children as the National Institutes of 
Health reneged on its promise to conduct a study at the Clinical Center 
on chelation therapy in the pediatric population. The American people 
deserve honest inquiry into chelation therapy for all its possible 
benefits.
  Keep in mind, 1 in 6 women of childbearing age are carrying a higher 
than normal body burden of mercury, and mercury is the second most 
toxic substance on the planet. Mercury in all its forms can be harmful 
especially to babies in the wound and in the first years of life.
  We first became aware of mercury in vaccines after the FDA was 
required by our body to conduct an inquiry on the amount of mercury in 
the products they regulated. A new inquiry is due in 2013 to determine 
the amount of mercury still in all FDA regulated products. Congress 
will once again need to require this of the FDA. I am disturbed that in 
2013 we continue to have mercury in any form in medicines and in other 
products Americans routinely use without the knowledge they are 
exposing their families to mercury. It is a travesty that public health 
authorities have discounted the risk of mercury in vaccines and other 
products because it is a ``trace amount''. The whole body of evidence 
on mercury shows it can be harmful and is best avoided. Sadly the 
American Academy of Pediatrics and the public health officials at FDA 
and the rest of the Department of Health and Human Services should be 
leading the charge to get mercury out of all medicines, and they have 
instead continued to protect the industry and not our children. It has 
been left to families who have formed organizations such as the 
Coalition for SafeMinds to fight for children to be protected from 
exposure to mercury through medicine.
  Autism and Vaccine Injury: The Committee did not set out to 
investigate the epidemic rise in autism rates; however, in late 1999 as 
we were looking at reports of injury within the military form the 
adulterated anthrax vaccine, we began hearing about children being 
injured from vaccines and developing autism. It was a crisis we could 
not ignore.
  Just as Bob Wright, the founder of Autism Speaks, recently testified 
before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that his 
daughter Katie reports that her son suffered a vaccine injury and 
developed autism, my both of my own grandchildren suffered vaccine 
injuries and my grandson developed autism shortly after he was 
vaccinated with multiple vaccines, exposed to high levels of mercury 
and suffered adverse reactions. We heard from thousands of families 
whose experienced similar injuries. Almost 5,000 of these families 
sought relief through the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) as 
is required by law. Congress and the American people are repeatedly 
told that vaccine injury does not cause autism. Of the 5,000 families 
only 1, a little girl named Hannah Poling, has received justice in this 
program because her parents, both health professionals were able to 
document a mitochondrial dysfunction that was exacerbated by exposure 
to mercury and vaccine injury. The government conceded her case, but it 
still took years of negotiations and legal battles for little Hannah to 
be compensated. This program is not working at Congress intended and I 
hope my colleagues in the 113th Congress will conduct a thorough review 
of the management of the VICP and direct through legislation 
improvements to the law so that all that are seriously injured may be 
compensated swiftly, fairly and without long litigious battles. Sadly 
the autism omnibus proceeding was fraught with injustices. There was 
only limited discovery, many actions by government lawyers that in any 
other court would lead to disbarment, and an appearance of bias by the 
Special Masters who seemed to work as partners to Justice to defend 
against vaccine injury rather than to sit as unbiased administrators 
and many other matters deserve a thorough oversight review by Congress 
to insure the program operates as it was designed.

  While government officials who settled the Hannah Poling case 
reported her mitochondrial dysfunction is rare, others reported that it 
is very prevalent in the autism population. Maybe as many as 1 in 5 
with autism may have this same mitochondrial dysfunction. These same 
government officials have failed to share what their database of 
vaccine cases show--that almost since the inception of the VICP, the 
government has quietly been settling cases of vaccine induced brain 
injury that resulted in autism. The Elizabeth Birt Law Advocacy Center 
(EBCALA) conducted a review of settled cases within the program for 
vaccine induced brain injury such as encephalitis and seizures, 
confirmed dozens of cases in which the government compensated the 
vaccine injured. The way that the government has shielded this is that 
it is not listed as the primary injury. However, the EBCALA 
investigators validated through families and records that autism 
resulted from vaccine injury. There needs to improved transparency 
within this program. Every case that is settled should be published 
online in such a way that the public is informed what injuries have 
been acknowledged and the management of the program improved so that 
all cases for like injuries are compensated quickly. At present each 
report of injury is handled in isolation, with no discovery, no ability 
to refer to other cases and evidence previously accepted in cases, the 
program is wasteful in the use of its resources and certainly not fair 
to the injured. If we want to preserve vaccine policies in this 
country, it is essential to insure that the VICP works as Congress 
intended. I urge my colleagues to engage and stay engaged in 
investigating this program, talking to the lawyers and petitioners in 
the program, and improving it through legislation.
  Autism: Autism in and of itself is a national emergency. We have gone 
in the time that I served in Congress from 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 88 
children age 8 on the autism spectrum. This cannot simply be genetics--
there is no such thing as a genetic epidemic. There are many issues 
that I urge my colleagues to address in 2013. The ERISA fix for 
insurance coverage of autism therapies such as Applied Behavioral 
Analysis is ``low hanging fruit'' for Congress. There is an urgent need 
to address adult and transition services for individuals with autism 
including those with higher functioning autism who, while often able to 
live independently as adults, are often under employed. We have a 
severe shortage of adequate housing for adults with autism who are no 
longer able to live with their parents. We have invested a billion 
dollars in autism research over the last decade, mostly on epidemiology 
and genetics. The autism community is frustrated that environmental 
factors are not given a greater share of the research dollars and that 
practically no funding has been provided to evaluate the dozens of 
therapies families who are able to pay out of pocket are using very 
successfully. Many of these are dietary related and alternative 
therapies and if there is ever to be insurance reimbursement, Medicaid 
coverage, or access through other government programs such as for 
military families, research to investigate for safety and benefit is 
needed. I hope my colleagues in 2013 will direct federal research 
resources to these much needed efforts in collaboration with the 
families and practitioners who have experience using them. The 
government cannot continue to sink significant resources simply into 
counting the children, without addressing the causes of the epidemic 
increase and focuses on prevention and treatments.
  I am pleased that Chairman Darrell Issa committed during the November 
29 autism hearing to stay engaged in looking at the federal response to 
autism. He is learning as I did while Chairman that the families and 
professionals involved in this community are desperate for Congress to 
do something to improve the Federal response, to hold accountable those 
who are subverting the truth about the causes of autism, and who have 
poorly managed the resources provided by taxpayers to get to the truth 
on autism and vaccine injury. I urge a review on how the Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has managed the Vaccine Safety 
Database, how Poul Thorsen was able to steal more than $1 million from 
the autism grant in the CDC-Denmark project, and why Diana Schendel of 
the CDC has continued publish studies as a co-author to Thorsen. Why 
does the CDC continue to promote his research after his federal 
indictment for 22 counts of wire fraud and money laundering? I am 
concerned that individuals at the CDC have participated in malicious 
acts of covering up the data showing a direct connection between 
exposure to mercury in vaccines in the first six months of life and an 
eleven-fold increase risk of autism. I urge the 113th Congress to shine 
the light of day on their actions and seek justice.
  Military and Veterans: I cannot leave Congress without giving mention 
to the men and women of our armed services, active duty, National 
Guard, Reserves and Veterans. We recently lost one our own in the 
Congress, Senator Daniel Inouye, a World War II veteran. All across the 
great nation, in veterans' hospitals, hospices and retirement homes, we 
are losing tens of thousands of World War II, the Korean Conflict, and 
Vietnam War veterans each month. Too many have no remaining family 
members to be with them and it is VA staff and volunteers who spend the 
last hours and days with them.
  The signature injuries of the Global War on Terror of the last 12 
years is Traumatic Brain Injury and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. 
(TBI/PTSD) I like many Members of Congress have been informed of the 
benefits of hyperbaric oxygen therapy at 1.5 ATA for members of the 
military who have had concussive injury and developed TBI/PTSD. 
Professional athletes such as Washington Redskins quarterback Robert 
Griffin III who suffer a concussive injury are immediately provided 
access to all therapies that show benefit including hyperbaric oxygen 
therapy (HBOT).

[[Page E2023]]

Sadly our troops not provided the same access. For a decade members of 
the military and veterans have been working to gain access to HBOT and 
other therapies and to have these therapies paid for through Tricare. 
Evidence show HBOT is both safe and effective, and unlike the anti-
depressant, anti-psychotic and other drugs being handed out like candy 
by military doctors, do not have black box warnings for increased risk 
of suicide and suicidal thoughts. I urge my colleagues returning in 
2013 as well as President Obama, the Secretaries of Defense and 
Veterans Affairs to work together to make HBOT at 1.5 ATA (the 
validated dose) and other therapies as outlined in the TBI Treatment 
Act we passed twice in the House available to those with TBI/PTSD. 
Those who stepped up and volunteered to serve our nation deserve 
nothing less.
  Health Freedom and the Constitution: At the foundation of all of my 
time in public service is the Constitution. The prevailing theme of the 
right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all Americans 
are as important today as it was when I was first sworn in. As I leave 
Congress, I am grateful for the opportunity to serve the people of 
Indiana and the nation. I am grateful for all those who have worked 
with me over the years in my Congressional office and on Committee 
Staff. I am thankful to a God who has provided me strength and health 
to serve and pray that as we enter 2013 and I enter a new phase of my 
life, with a beautiful and intelligent wife and family whom I love, 
that new champions for health freedom will emerge.

                          ____________________