Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, in the late 1980s, Congress passed a bill that established a Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund. It was supposed to be a nonadversarial fund that was to help children and their parents when they were damaged by vaccines.

We have found in the last few years that we have had a tremendous increase in the number of autistic children in America. We went from 1 in 10,000 children who are autistic to 1 in 200; and now many scientists and doctors around the world and in the United States believe it has been caused by mercury in vaccines.

There is a product in vaccines called thimerosal; and 50 percent of thimerosal, which is a preservative in vaccines, is mercury. Mercury causes damage to the neurologic system and to the brain; and yet we have been putting it in needles and then into our kids for many, many years, mercury which has a cumulative effect in the brain and does cause things like autism and other neurological disorders. Most parents do not know that.

When we established this fund in the late 1980s, there was a 3-year window when people could file if their children had been damaged by vaccines. Many parents with autistic children did not know about the fund until the 3 years had elapsed. We are trying to get that changed so these thousands and thousands of parents with autistic children have the opportunity to apply to that fund to get the kind of restitution that they need to take care of their kids.

Many parents have gone bankrupt, have lost their homes, have had to take extra mortgages to help with their problems, and the children are never going to be completely right. If Members saw the movie Rainman, Members know what I am talking about.

Mr. Speaker, each night I am coming to the floor and reading one of the thousands of letters I get from parents who have no place to turn except to the Congress.

This lady who wrote this letter is named Melinda Clark from Parma, Missouri. Here is what she writes:

``My family's journey down this road began a little over 3

years ago. The day of my son's diagnosis is permanently

etched in my mind. I stood there frozen in the doctor's

office almost as if time stood still, and I was instantly put

on autopilot. It is still painful to go back to that time in

my mind. It finally explained why my precious little boy no

longer uttered my name or even looked into my eyes. Oh, how I

longed to hear the words 'I love you,' but those were not

going to come easily. It would take numerous hours of intense

therapy to put together any sounds. With our backs against

the wall, we immediately immersed ourselves into research and

getting therapy treatment under way. While most kids his age

enjoyed leisure time playing with toys and watching Sesame

Street, my son began a time-intensive schedule of 40 hours a

week of combined therapies. We started from scratch and had

to first learn what exactly Nicholas knew and then work from

there to fill in many gaps.

``As our research continued, I was quick to discover the

use of thimerosal in many of my son's vaccines. Nicholas

received his vaccines from both the county health department

as well as the doctor's office. All in all, too much

thimerosal was accumulated for his fragile immunity and

nervous system. My investigation has been thwarted by the

doctor's office from the beginning. As I began to put

together pieces and find proof for my well-founded fears of

mercury poisoning in my son, I requested the specific lot

numbers as well as manufacturers' names for his vaccines in

order to file a vaccine injury report. The doctor's office

effectively stalled me for many months before finally telling

me that no specific records had been maintained. I could not

believe my ears. This was their legal, not to mention

ethical, obligation to their patients' safety and welfare.

Without this specific information, I was never able to

officially report the injury, but it is my sincere hope that

through this letter my story can be told. Nothing can be done

to undo the damage done to my son, but I pray that no other

family will have to suffer at the hands of our ignorant use

of mercury in these vaccines.

What sickens me even more is I worked in an environmental

lab where we would test for this toxin in parts per billion,

and no one ever mentioned to me during my son's vaccines that

this toxin was being used as preservative. As an intelligent

human being, if given the opportunity and knowledge of being

told this chemical was contained in his vaccines, I never

would have allowed this poison to be injected into my child.

Then it goes on and tells how horrible it was as she saw her child slip away from her and does not pay attention or look at her any more.

It is difficult for those who are not personally affected

to understand or even acknowledge the truth. We have been

trained from early on to trust in our government and follow

all the guidelines set forth for vaccine safety. Like many

others, I used to have that trust. Now my vision has been

greatly blurred as the blame and acceptance of this issue has

been set aside time and again. It is time for our country to

step forward and do what is right. No other family should

have to walk this stony path when it can easily be avoided by

the complete removal of all mercury in all vaccines. The

monetary loss of dumping these vaccines is a small price to

pay. My son is now 6, and he is doing as well as anyone can

expect.

Mr. Speaker, there are thousands of these children who have been damaged by mercury in vaccines, and here are a few pictures of some of these children. We need to adjust the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund to take care of these kids. We cannot leave them and their parents high and dry. It is absolutely criminal for this Congress not to deal with this issue.

Mr. Speaker and my colleagues, these are the faces of children who have been vaccinated with childhood vaccines that contain a

substance called thimerosal. Thousands and thousands and thousands, probably millions of children, but thousands of children have been adversely affected by the thimerosal, which is 50 percent mercury; and these are the faces of children who were normal one day, and after receiving several shots in one day that contained mercury, they very rapidly deteriorated to where they could not talk, they could not look one in the eye, they would flap their arms and run around screaming, and they had chronic constipation and diarrhea alternatively.

These parents of these children and thousands more like them have had a similar experience to my daughter and my grandson. He received nine shots in one day, seven of which contained mercury. He got 40 times the amount of mercury that is tolerable in an adult in 1 day, and within 2 days he was autistic. A very normal child like these were normal children. He was a very happy child, a very talkative child, and he went into silence. When we started getting him out of it finally, he could not talk clearly. He had to have all kinds of speech therapy. He ran around on his toes, flapping his arms, banging his head against the wall like all of these children did. And scientists that we have had before our committee and doctors from throughout the world who are very competent have said that in large part that was caused because by the mercury that was injected into these children from the preservative called thimerasol which was in almost all of the children's vaccinations until just the last 2 or 3 years when we had hearings on this, and, thankfully, most of those vaccines no longer have mercury in them except maybe one which is the flu vaccine for children.

So, Mr. Speaker, if any parents would be watching this, I would like for them to remember to very quickly and very thoroughly look at the insert in the vaccination case when their children are vaccinated and make sure that they do not have an adverse reaction.

The reason I am bringing this up and I am coming down here every night is because there is an attempt by the pharmaceutical companies through Members of Congress to eliminate any possibility of lawsuits against them caused by these vaccinations which had mercury in them.

We have what is called the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund, which was supposed to be a nonadversarial procedure to compensate these people for damage to their children caused by vaccines; but it has become very adversarial, and it was only a 3-year period within which people had to file. That 3-year period passed before many of these people knew that they could try to get compensation for their child's damage; and as a result, they were left out in the cold. So they filed a class action lawsuit, and there has been an attempt last fall and again this year they are going to attempt to stop those class action lawsuits which would leave these parents out in the cold with no recourse. They are mortgaging their homes. They are going bankrupt. They have no place to go. There is a fund set up to help them, but they cannot get into the fund because that statute has run out and they cannot even go to court to file a class action lawsuit if this language that is in the Senate bill right now is passed into law; and that simply is wrong. We created that fund so those people, those children, could be compensated.

I want to read a letter of a former colleague of ours, Dick Chrysler, who was a Member of this Chamber who has a grandson who is 6 years old that is autistic. He received several vaccinations in the 1997-1999 period, many of which contained the mercury, and here is what his mother said: ``He then continued to regress from being alert and happy and beginning to talk to total regression and not talking until after age 3 with speech therapy. He also became a very aggressive child who did not know how to play or interact properly with others.'' That is what happened to my grandson as well.

``These and many other much more severe behaviors such as seizures with severe breakdowns and explosive behaviors which have caused injury to our other children from broken bones to stitches have become a part of our life due to autism. This has made our life incredibly difficult as one can imagine. As we have taken this past year and a half focusing on whatever treatments we can do to help our son's autism improve and therefore our family's life as well, it has cost us more than we could ever have imagined. Treatments, which have helped but are not covered by any insurance, have amounted to thousands of dollars, and this expense has no end in sight.''

Remember, there is a fund out there that they cannot get into. They cannot go to court, and yet the vaccines, they believe, and thousands like them believe, and I believe, and scientists and doctors believe it was caused by the mercury in these vaccines.

Autism does not just affect the poor thousands of children inflicted with this dreadful disease. It affects every person in the world, since ultimately this epidemic is like a chain reaction.

They go on to say 10 to 20 years from now when these are not just little children, who is going to take care of them, especially when we die? This is something that my colleagues and I have to deal with, and we have to deal with it quickly.

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

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.

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.

Mr. Speaker, Devinder Singh Pal Bhullar faces the death penalty. He should be spared. His pending execution shows that the Indian constitution only protects the Hindu majority.

Bhullar was accused of being involved in a 1993 bombing near the offices of the Youth Congress in Delhi. 20 people were killed in that blast and Congress leader M.S. Bitta lost a leg.

This might be a justifiable sentence for such a crime except for a few small details. Mr. Bhullar was found ``not guilty'' by the presiding judge of a three-judge panel from India's Supreme Court. The judge directed that he be released. Apparently, that was not acceptable to the fundamentalist Hindu nationalist regime. So they tortured him to coerce him into signing a false confession which was subsequently retracted. Yet they are executing him on the basis of this forced confession.

This is offensive to anyone with a sense of justice. Mr. Speaker. This is not the way a democratic country does things. It is how criminal cases are handled in such models of democracy as Red China and Iraq. Meanwhile, Sajjan Kumar and H.K.L. Bhagat, the officials responsible for inciting the murders of thousands of Sikhs in Delhi, have never been brought to justice.

Unfortunately, this is typical of how India treats its minorities. Last year in Gujarat 2,000 to 5,000 Muslims were murdered by militant Hindu nationalists while police, under orders, stood by and did nothing. No one has been punished for this atrocity. Now police in Gujarat are demanding very intrusive information about Christians there. Meanwhile, two states have enacted laws prohibiting religious conversions--except to Hinduism, of course.

Police have murdered over a quarter of a million Sikhs, over 200,000 Christians in Nagaland, over 85,000 Muslims in Kashmir, and tens of thousands of Assamese, Bodos, Dalit ``untouchables,'' Manipuris, Tamils, and other minorities. Indian forces were caught red-handed in a village in Kashmir trying to set fire to the Sikh Gurdwara and some homes there. Two studies have shown that Indian forces carried out the massacre of 35 Sikhs in Chithisinghpora three years ago this month.

Missionary Graham Staines and his two sons were murdered by being burned to death in their jeep while the killers surrounded the jeep and chanted ``Victory to Hannuman.'' Missionary Joseph Cooper was severely beaten and had to spend a week in the hospital. Then he was expelled from the country for preaching. The widow of Mr. Staines was also expelled from India. Christian churches have been burned and schools and prayer halls have been violently attacked with impunity. There have been priests murdered and nuns raped.

In 1995, Indian police picked up human-rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra did a study of cremation grounds in Punjab which showed that thousands of Sikhs have been picked up, tortured, murdered, then declared ``unidentified'' and secretly cremated. For his efforts, Khalra was picked up by the police and murdered while in police custody. More than 52,000 Sikhs sit in jail as political prisoners without charge or trial.

The time has come to stop our aid to India. We should also support the self-determination to which all peoples and nations are entitled. This is the only way to end atrocities such as these and to ensure peace, freedom, stability, and prosperity in South Asia.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to place the Council of Khalistan's outstanding press release on the Bhullar case into the Record.

Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar's Life Must Be Spared

minorities eliminated, directly or by courts

Washington, DC, Feb. 25, 2003.--The impending execution of

Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar shows that the Constitution of

India only protects the majority Hindu population, according

to Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of

Khalistan, which leads the Sikh struggle for independence

from India. Dr. Aulakh called on the President of India to

stop the execution. Bhullar was accused of a 1993 bomb blast

near the Youth Congress office in Delhi in which 20 people

were killed. Congress leader M.S. Bitta lost a leg in that

attack.

The presiding Judge of a three-Judge bench in the Supreme

Court of India found Professor Bhullar, a political activist,

``Not Guilty'' and directed that he be released. However,

Professor Bhullar was convicted based on a forced confession

obtained through torture, which was retracted. On that basis

India wants to impose capital punishment on Professor

Bhullar. Sajjan Kumar and H.K.L. Bhagat, who personally

incited the murder of thousands of Sikhs in Delhi, go off

scot-free without any punishment. Even by Indian standards,

this is an outrageous miscarriage of justice.

``The Bhullar case is merely the latest example of how

India eliminates minorities,'' said Dr. Aulakh. Indian police

arrested human-rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra after he

exposed their policy of mass cremation of Sikhs, in which

over 50,000 Sikhs have been picked up, tortured, and killed,

then their bodies are declared unidentified and secretly

cremated. Then Mr. Khalra was murdered in police custody. His

body was not given to his family. Similarly, the police

murdered former Jathedar of the Akal Takht Gurdev Singh

Kaunke. His body was not handed over to his family.

Last spring the Indian police stood aside under orders

while militant Hindus murdered 2,000 to 5,000 Muslims in

Gujarat. Australian missionary Graham Staines was murdered a

few years ago by VHP activists. Staines and his two young

sons were burned to death while they slept in their jeep.

Their killers surrounded the jeep and chanted ``Victory to

Hannuman,'' a Hindu god. After the murder, Staines' widow,

who was working with lepers, was expelled from India. No one

was ever punished for these atrocities. Nuns have been raped,

priests have been murdered, and Christian churches have been

burned by the fanatic, fundamentalist Hindu nationalist

militants.

``It is clear from these actions that India is not the

democracy it claims to be,'' said Dr. Aulakh. ``Instead it is

a tyrannical Hindu theocracy where minorities die or

disappear,'' he said. ``There is a consistent pattern of

Indian government efforts to protect its tyrannical rule over

the minorities of South Asia.''

The Indian government has murdered over 250,000 Sikhs since

1984, more than 200,000 Christians since 1948, over 85,000

muslims in Kashmir since 1988, and tens of thousands of

Tamils, Assamese, Manipuris, Dalits (the aboriginal people of

the subcontinent), and others. More than 52,000 Sikhs are

being held as political prisoners. The Indian Supreme Court

called the Indian government's murders of Sikhs ``worse than

a genocide.'' On October 7, 1987, the Sikh Nation declared

the independence of its homeland, Punjab, Khalistan. No Sikh

representative has ever signed the Indian constitution. The

Council of Khalistan is the government pro tempore of

Khalistan, the Sikh homeland. The Sikh Nation demands freedom

for its homeland, Khalistan.

``Only in a free and sovereign Khalistan will the Sikh

Nation prosper. In a democracy, the right to self-

determination is the sine qua non and India should allow a

plebiscite for the freedom of the Sikh Nation and all the

nations of South Asia,'' Dr. Aulakh said.

Madam Speaker, a few minutes ago, the majority and the minority leaders of the House, or the minority whip and the majority leader of the House, discussed the Amber Alert System and how important it was that we do everything we can to protect our American children. This lectern, or this stand, holds the faces of about 55 or 60 children who have been damaged, their parents believe, by vaccines that contain mercury and they have become autistic. One of those is my grandson.

It is very interesting, Madam Speaker, that today we found out that there is a just-published report in the ``Journal of the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons'' that involves a research study on autism. The research, conducted by Drs. Mark Geier and David Geier, analyzed mercury doses children received from thimerosal, which contains mercury in childhood vaccines in comparison to Federal safety guidelines. The doctors concluded that mercury from thimerosal did exceed Federal safety guidelines and that the study provides strong epidemiological evidence for a link between increasing mercury from thimerosal-containing childhood vaccines and neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism which has reached epidemic proportions. The authors stated, ``A causal relationship between thimerosal-containing childhood vaccines and neurodevelopmental disorders appears to be confirmed.''

The Geier research confirms the findings of an unreleased CDC study, Centers for Disease Control, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, which found a relative risk of 2.48 between thimerosal exposures and autism. Courts of law have generally held that a relative risk of 2.0 or higher is sufficient to substantiate that a given exposure causes diseases.

So there is no doubt, no doubt, that the mercury that has been injected into our children is a cause, a contributing cause at the very least, but a cause, of the autism that these children are suffering. I have asked the parents of these children from across the country to write to me, to give me information on how their child became autistic and how close it was to when the child was vaccinated with vaccines containing mercury.

We had a big problem in the last session. Right at the end in the homeland security bill, there was an amendment stuck in at the 11th hour which took away any liability that the pharmaceutical companies might incur because of mercury-related damage done to children. We were able to get that out early this session. But now in the other body they are trying to put that back in in a bill that was introduced today by the majority leader. That is something that is intolerable. It is something that cannot be tolerated by this body or the other body.

I want to tell you why real quickly. Here is one example, a letter from a lady named Sue McManus from Kennesaw, Georgia. She says:

``Eight years ago, in 1994, I adopted a lovely daughter, Jessica, from Paraguay at age 5 months. Jessica was not identified as a special needs child at the time of adoption and was in fact seen by pediatricians in Paraguay who were U.S. trained as well as in this country and given a clean bill of health. Being a responsible parent and following directions from my doctors, I had her vaccinated within a few weeks of bringing her home. On 11/15/94, she received OPV, DPT, HIB and hepatitis B. On January 17, 1995, she received her second series of shots. Within 4 hours of the second series of shots, she reacted with severe infantile spasm seizures and she became autistic. She had three seizures that week and had never had any form of seizure prior to the second shot. Per medical recommendation, she received several shots that day. I don't have any doubt that my daughter reacted severely and directly as a result of this DPT shot or combination of shots.''

She goes on to say that ``she has not developed normally, she has become autistic, she stares at the walls, she flaps her arms like my grandson does and she has chronic diarrhea or constipation and it is a problem that will not go away.'' If you saw the movie ``Rain Man,'' you know how bad autism can be. If we do not deal with this problem now, we are going to deal with it in 15 to 20 years when these people all become dependent on society.

Let me just say to my colleagues, this is something this House is going to have to address. It is not a partisan issue. Both Democrats and Republicans have said they want to protect America's children. The President said he does not want to leave any children behind. These kids are being left behind and their parents are being saddled with $50,000, $100,000, $200,000 bills. They are selling their homes, they are going bankrupt to take care of their children, and the people who are responsible for the damage to them, the pharmaceutical companies, are being left high and dry with no damage whatsoever being attributed to them. There is a responsibility here for this government to make sure these children are treated properly.

In the next few weeks I am going to be reading every night letters from these parents talking about how their child was damaged and in what proximity it was to the shots they received containing mercury. We can no longer turn our backs on this. We went from one in 10,000 children who are autistic to one in 150 right now. It is an absolute epidemic. We cannot sweep it under the rug.

Mr. Speaker, I have with me today a box, and on this box I am not sure my colleagues can see this, but there is 50 to 100 pictures of children who are autistic, and in the box I have in back of my office I have probably close to 1,000 letters from parents who have autistic children who believe their children became autistic because they received vaccinations that contained mercury.

We all know mercury is a toxic substance, and we know that we should not have it around us, but we have, as a matter of fact, been vaccinating our children with many micrograms of mercury in each vaccination for probably the last 20 years, and as we increase the number of vaccines that the children were being inoculated with, the amount of mercury that they were being confronted with went up as well, and as a result, we have gone from one in 10,000 children who are autistic to one in 200 children that are autistic. That is a fifty-fold increase.

Soon what I am going to be doing, Mr. Speaker, is each night I am going to be coming down here and reading to the American people and my colleagues letters from these families telling of their child becoming autistic, when it happened and how it happened so that my colleagues and the American people will really know what is going on.

Many of the pharmaceutical companies do not want this to happen because they are concerned about the liability that they might incur. We have what is called the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund, which if handled properly could deal with most of these children and their families, but unfortunately, the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund, which was created not only to protect the pharmaceutical companies but to help these children in a

nonadversarial way by getting money to take care of their damaged bodies and minds, has not been administered properly, but we are working on that now. Until we get a resolution of that problem, we will be down here every night or every other night reading these letters.

This is a letter from a man named Scott Bono and his wife is Laura Bono, and they tell about their child and how their child became autistic after he received vaccines. Now they have done a mercury toxicity test on their son which shows that he has quite a bit of mercury in his body, and the way he got that mercury into his body was through these vaccinations. They say in this letter, ``When Jackson was first diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder at 20 months old, he had just experienced a four-month regression beginning days after his August 9, 1990 shots. He received HiB shot, with 25 micrograms of mercury, on July 25.'' And 2-weeks later he received on August 9 a DT shot with 25 micrograms of mercury in it. He had received, prior to that, 75 micrograms of mercury from other shots, and the boy became autistic shortly thereafter.

The parents were not aware of and did not get their child into what was called the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund, which has a 3-year statute of limitations, which means that if they did not get into it within 3 years of finding out he was autistic and they believe the cause was vaccines that they could not get into the fund. We have thousands of families that were not aware of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund, who never applied, and those people have been left out in the cold.

Let me tell my colleagues the results of just this one family's problem.

Since he became autistic, their medical expenses have cost $578,980. Their insurance companies have paid $306,000 of that, but including food and everything else that they are providing for this boy for his special needs, it is costing them $35,000 in after tax dollars to take care of this child, and when we add all this up, it is over $600,000 in medical needs and therapy and food for this boy. Actually, they are in a very difficult financial situation because of that.

We have families that have sold their homes, have gone bankrupt, have borrowed money until they are about to go bankrupt to take care of their children's needs, and those people are confident, as I am, that their child was damaged by the mercury in these vaccines.

So, Mr. Speaker, we have got to do something about that. We have to either change the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund to allow these people to get in there where their child and his problem is going to be reviewed by a special master, and if there is merit to their claim, this Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund should take care of that. If we do not get that, then the next thing we ought to do is allow them to be able to go to court to sue the pharmaceutical companies.

In any event, Mr. Speaker, I will be back here tomorrow night and I appreciate the Chair being liberal with his time. We have got to solve these problems for these kids. We cannot leave them out in the cold. The President said he was going to leave no child behind, and we should not leave these children behind.

Mr. Speaker, there has been a lot of misinformation going around about our good friend, Saddam Hussein, and I think that the American people as well as my colleagues need to know really what is going on, because a lot of people have not been paying attention to this.

For the past decade, Saddam Hussein has violated 16 separate U.N. resolutions. He has failed to account for 26,500 artillery rockets used for delivering nerve gas; he has failed to account for 5,000 artillery shells filled with mustard gas; he has failed to account for more than 3,000 tons of chemicals that could be used as weapons; and he has failed time and time again to honor his agreement on the no-fly zone.

Mr. Speaker, he has enough biological agents to produce 26,000 liters of anthrax, 26,000 liters, 1,200 liters of botulinum toxin, and a whole bunch of others. He has tried to procure uranium for nuclear weaponry, and he has failed to account for nearly 30,000 empty munitions that could be filled with chemical agents.

Yet, there are so many people, after all of these violations, who keep saying, we ought to wait, we ought to wait, we ought to wait. He is connected to the terrorist network. If we are not very careful, if we do not deal with him very quickly, he is going to produce these biological and chemical weapons, he is going to give them to one of his minions in al Qaeda or some other terrorist organization, they are going to come into the United States, and they are going to kill tens or hundreds of thousands of Americans. That is why we need to deal with him very, very expeditiously.

One of the things that concerns me so much is that we do not profit from history. Back in the late 1930s and early 1940s, Hitler, the Chancellor of Germany, said time and again that he wanted peace and he did not want to violate any neutrality treaties, and yet he violated the Treaty of Versailles. He went into the Sudetenland and got an agreement from the European allies and said that that was all he wanted. And then he went into Poland after violating a nonagression pact. And then he went into Denmark, and then he went into Norway, and then he went into Sweden, and then he went into Belgium, and then he went into Paris and France. And because the world did not pay attention to what was going on and they did not listen to Winston Churchill, who was the only voice who made any sense, 50 million people died. I want everybody to listen to that: 50 million people died because they did not pay any attention to what Hitler was saying and what he was doing.

Now, Saddam Hussein has at his disposal weapons of mass destruction, and he has hidden them for the past 10 to 12 years; and he has not accounted for them. For us and the Free World to keep our heads in the sand while this is going on is absolutely incredulous.

The President of the United States is doing the right thing. The only thing I would say to the President is if the United Nations does not start forcing him to adhere, Saddam to adhere to those U.N. resolutions, then why talk to them anymore? Mr. President, do what is necessary. Take our troops and invade Iraq from the north and the south, if possible, get rid of Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction, and send a signal to the world and the terrorists worldwide that we are not going to tolerate them. Do not mess with the U.N. anymore, Mr. President, because they simply are not with it.

Mr. Speaker, due to an unavoidable conflict in my schedule, I was unable to be present during rollcall votes 37-39. Had I voted, I would have voted ``no'' on rollcall votes 37-38, and ``yea'' on rollcall vote 39.

Mr. Speaker, I offer a resolution (H. Res. 98), and I ask unanimous consent for its immediate consideration.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me the time.

I have not read this book ``Captive Warriors'' yet, but I am going to read it. I have known the gentleman for many years, and I have never been able to get out of him a lot of the things that happened to him in Vietnam, but I want him to know that from other people I have learned that he really is a hero, and he is a credit not only to the service of this country, the armed services, but he is a credit to this House as well.

One of the proudest things that I can say about being a Member of Congress is, Sam Johnson is my friend.

Mr. Speaker, ``during rollcall votes 15, 16, and 17, I was unavoidably absent. Had I been here I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall vote 15 and ``no'' on rollcall vote 16 and 17.

Mr. Speaker, while we were in recess, a law was passed in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu by the Hindu fundamentalist government there that bans religious conversions to any religion but Hinduism. The Washington Times did an excellent report on this bill in its issue of November 11.

According to the article, the bill ``penalizes those who convert to a religion other than Hinduism with imprisonment and a hefty fine.'' The ruling BJP and its coalition partners, as well as one of its sister organizations, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), have endorsed this bill and called for similar bills to be passed all over the country.

The militant Hindu nationalists claim that people are being converted by force. However, as John Dayal, secretary-general of the All-India Christian Council in New Delhi, said, ``In fact, the only inducements by fraud and fear are those being carried out by [Hindu organizations] in the tribal belt, where innocent tribals are being forced to become Hindus.'' A Cabinet members was quoted several months ago as saying that everyone who lives in India must be a Hindu or be subservient to Hindus. This is the reality of Indian democracy, Mr. Speaker.

India must start acting like a democracy. 52,268 Sikhs political prisoners and tens of thousands of other political prisoners being held in India must be released. Since 1984, over 250,000 Sikhs have been murdered by the Indian government. The Indian regime has also killed over 85,000 Kashmiri Muslims since 1988, over 200,000 Christians in Nagaland, and tens of thousands of other minorities, including Assamese, Bodos, Dalits, Manipuris, and Tamils, among others. Last spring, 2,000 to 5,000 Muslims were murdered in Gujarat with the connivance and support of the police. In November, the government of Pakistan issued 400 visas to Sikhs to come and celebrate the birthday of one of the Sikh Gurus, Guru Nanak. India only let 48 Sikhs to the celebration.

Why are American taxpayers being asked to support this theocratic regime? It is time to cut off our aid to India, and it is time to support the American principles of freedom, democracy, peace, and stability by openly and publicly supporting self-determination for all the peoples and nations of South Asia, such as Khalistan, Kashmir, Nagalim, and others, through a free and fair plebiscite. This will show India's commitment to being a true democracy rather than a Hindu theocracy.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to place the Washington Times article on the anti-conversion ordinance into the Record at this time for the information of my colleagues.

[From the Washington Times, Nov. 11, 2002]

Low-Caste Hindus Eye New Religions

(By Shaikh Azizur Rahman)

New Delhi.--Low-caste Hindus in the southern Indian state

of Tamil Nadu are threatening to embrace Christianity,

Buddhism or Islam to protest a new law that outlaws religious

conversion.

A bill passed into law by the state legislature last month

penalizes those who convert to a religion other than Hinduism

with imprisonment and a hefty fine.

While religious minorities in Tamil Nadu plan to challenge

the law in court, many Hindus from so-called ``untouchable

castes,'' known as Dalits, are threatening to publicly defy

the new law.

One group of Dalit Hindus in the state capital, Chennai,

said that a group of 10,000 will convert to Buddhism on Dec.

6 if the law is not revoked.

Another group, known as the Dalit Panthers of India [DPI),

pledged that 25,000 of its members would become Christians to

protest what they called an ``unjustified'' decree.

``The upper class has been torturing the Dalits for

centuries, and now, by passing the

bill, the government has decided to shackle us in a society

where we are denied even our basic democratic rights,'' said

one Dalit activist, who identified himself by the Christian

name Emmanuel.

On Oct. 31, Tamil Nadu became the first--but probably not

the last--Indian state to outlaw religious conversions.

Though the law targets conversions ``by force, allurement or

fraudulent means,'' opponents say the language offers the

means to challenge all conversions to faiths other than

Hinduism.

``Even if one changes one's religion of one's own free

will, those involved in the conversion can be punished on the

ground that it's a case of forced conversion,'' said M.

Karunanidhi a former chief minister of Tamil Nadu.

The new law was welcomed by Hindu fundamentalists, who

govern the nation in a coalition led by the Hindu nationalist

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

``The BJP is strongly of the view that this law is most

necessary for the whole country. Lots of money is coming into

the country from Islamic organizations to aid conversions,''

said BJP President M. Venkaih Naidu.

Ashok Singhal, leader of the World Hindu Council (VHP),

hailed the law as a ``timely and bold step'' and he urged

other states to pass similar laws.

The issue of religious conversion has long been a source

of strife in India. While federal law allows Indians to

change their faith, the ruling BJP makes no secret of its

dislike to the practice, while its ruling partner--the VHP

party--views conversions as betrayal.

Opponents of the new law warn it will only trigger an even

larger exodus of Hindus to other faiths.

The Global Council of Indian Christians said it was

``alarmed by the hurriedly promulgated ordinance,'' and

called it ``the most heinous violation of religious freedom

aimed at targeting Christian missionaries engaged in poverty

alleviation and spreading the light of education.

The All-Indian Christian People's Forum said that it went

against the core of the Constitution. ``This ordinance is

uncalled for, unwarranted and smacks of a pro-Hindu

ideological basis of the . . . government''.

``The bill runs foul of Article 25 [25] of the Indian

Constitution, which grants freedom of conscience and free

profession, practice and propagation of religion to every

Indian citizen,'' the group said.

Dominic Emmanuel, director of New Delhi Catholic

Archdiocese, called the measure, ``an assault as much on

civil rights as on human rights as on human dignity.''

John Daya, secretary-general of the Christian Council in

New Delhi, said: ``In fact the only inducements by fraud and

fear are those being carried out by [Hindu organizations] in

the tribal belt, where innocent tribals are being forced to

become Hindus.''

Muslims, too, are concerned.

How can conversions be prevented if an individual is

attracted to another religion because of his or her faith in

it? Force is never used to convert one to Islam because it is

against the basic tenets of [Islam],'' said Maolana

Siddikullah Chowdhury, general secretary of the Jamiat-e-

Ulema party in Calcutta.

He added that low-caste Hindus converted to Islam simply to

``escape discrimination and ill treatment'' and not under any

coercion.

Mr. Speaker, there was an interesting article in the Washington Post on December 11. It shows that hate can be a winning platform in India.

The article focuses on Jeetubhai Waghela, a candidate of the ruling BJP in the recent elections. He was involved in the killings in Gujarat last year, according to Muslims there. Now he runs as a protector of Hindus and this platform of hatred gains votes for him.

The Indian government has oppressed minorities for many years. In 1984, almost 20 years ago, it invaded the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the most sacred of Sikh shrines. Since then, over 250,000 Sikhs have been murdered by the government, according to figures from the Punjab State Magistracy. 52,268 Sikhs are being held as political prisoners, according to a study from the Movement Against State Repression. These political prisoners should be released immediately.

The government was directly involved in the murders in Gujarat last year, according to published reports in India. It has killed over 85,000 Kashmiri Muslims as well as Muslims throughout the country. Over 200,000 Christians have been killed in Nagaland. Since Christmas 1998, priests have been murdered, nuns have been raped, churches have been burned, and Christian schools and prayer halls have been attacked. Missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons were burned to death while they slept in their Jeep. Police broke up a religious festival with gunfire. These acts have been carried out by government forces or by their Hindu nationalist allies with government connivance. Is this a democracy?

We can help stop hate in the subcontinent. We must cut off our aid to India and we must come out for a free and fair plebiscite on independence in Kashmir, as India promised in 1948, as well as in Khalistan, in Nagaland, and the other countries seeking their freedom from India. Self-determination is the right of all peoples and nations, Mr. Speaker. That was the principle on which America is founded. It must be the principle that we promote around the world.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to place the Washington Post article I referred to into the Record at this time.

[From the Washington Post, Dec. 11, 2002]

In Indian Election, Hate Is Part of Platform

(By Rama Lakshmi)

Ahmedabad, India--The candidate marched down the slum's

narrow lanes, followed by men dancing to the sound of loud

drums and

spraying the streets with marigold petals. Hindu women paused

from their chores of peeling garlic and doing laundry to

offer garlands and blessings.

The cheerful scene, part of Jeetubhai Waghela's campaign

for a seat in the state legislature, played out beneath a

cloth banner that revealed a more ominous aspect of the

coming election here in India's western state of Gujarat. The

banner vows to avenge the killing of 58 Hindus during an

attack on a train by Muslims last February, and as the

supporters of Waghela, a member of the Hindu-nationalist

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), pressed forward and choked the

alleys, Muslim residents quickly hurried indoors.

``Here comes the lion,'' roared Waghela's men.

Nine months ago, as Gujarat was being riven by religious

violence that followed the killing of the Hindus, Waghela

stormed the same streets with a mob of Hindu men wearing

orange bandanas and armed with swords, sticks and gasoline,

according to witnesses and police records. Shouting angry

slogans at Muslim residents, Waghela allegedly ordered the

mob to loot and destroy their homes, leaving them homeless

for months.

``For three days, Waghela and his men looted and burnt our

homes. For eight months, we lived in relief camps because of

him,'' said Nasir Khan, a complainant. ``Now he tells Hindus

he is their protector against us. Where do we run for cover

if he gets elected?''

After a Muslim mob in the town of Godhra killed 58 Hindu

train passengers in February, more than 1,000 people died,

most of them Muslim, in weeks of arson and killing throughout

Gujarat. Human rights groups have accused the BJP--the ruling

party in Gujarat as well as in India's national government--

of essentially ignoring the killings by its Hindu extremist

allies.

As Gujarat prepares to elect a new state legislature on

Thursday, many analysts are describing the vote as an

important test of the secular foundations of India's

religiously and ethnically diverse democracy.

In a state where only 9 percent of the population of 50

million is Muslim, the BJP is counting on sectarian passions

to consolidate the Hindu vote. Throughout the state, BJP

leaders have delivered fiery speeches against Muslims

involved in the Feb. 27 attack and against Pakistan-aided

Islamic militants killing Hindus in the revolt-wracked

province of Jammu and Kashmir.

One such party stalwart is Waghela, who was arrested in

connection with this year's riots on four charges, including

murder and rioting. Jailed for 108 days and now free on bail,

Waghela, 31, is back here in Gomtipur, a mixed working-class

neighborhood in Ahmedabad, with folded hands, asking for

votes for the BJP. He denies playing a role in the riots and

insists he was framed.

Campaigning on a recent morning, Waghela identified a new

target of hate for his Hindu voters. Climbing on a platform,

he told them that a fancy new high-rise for Muslims is being

planned adjacent to their homes, on the site of a closed

textile mill. He warned them that they would not be safe any

longer.

``You will be surrounded from all sides by Muslims,'' said

Waghela, breathlessly flicking back his hair from his

forehead. ``Don't let them gain power over you. Vote for me

and I will stop that building plan.''

``Do you want the building here?'' he said.

``No!'' the crowd shouted back.

This election is critical to the political destiny of the

BJP, which has suffered defeats in several state elections in

the past two years. Gujarat is the last major state in which

the party holds power, and critics fear that it could use a

victory here as an endorsement of strident Hindu politics.

The national coalition that the BJP leads in New Delhi under

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will face the polls in

2004.

``In this election, the BJP is seeking a legitimization of

violence that its members indulged in against the Muslims,''

said Achyut Yagnik, a political analyst and social worker in

Gujarat. ``The results in Gujarat will determine whether they

take this appeal of Hindutva [Hindu chauvinism] beyond

Gujarat.''

The BJP's main challenger in Gujarat--and at the national

level--is the Congress party, which attacks the BJP's Hindu

fundamentalism for endangering the lives and rights of

India's religious minorities. As a result, Gujarat's Muslims

and Christians have rallied behind Congress, while many Hindu

voters in Gujarat feel that Congress, headed at the national

level by the Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, has an anti-Hindu

slant and defends only the religious minorities.

Opinion polls show that it is likely to be a close contest

between the BJP and Congress. Some secular analysts said that

although Hindu voters may find the demagoguery of the BJP

attractive, the social divisions inherent in the caste system

may prevent Hindus from voting as a bloc.

The Muslims of Gujarat, on the other hand, appear to have

decided to vote en masse for Congress. Yet many complained

that Congress took their support for granted and often forgot

them when attaining power. They will vote for Congress, they

say, simply because they have no other choice.

Nowhere is this frustration felt more sharply than in

Godhra, the epicenter of Gujarat's religious strife.

The BJP's candidate in Godhra, Haresh Bhatt, campaigns

under banners of the burning train, distributes pictures of

the dead Hindu passengers and describes the election as a

``religious war.'' But the Congress candidate there, Rajendra

Singh Patel, many Muslims said, was involved in burning the

shops and homes of Muslims in March.

``We made two appeals to the Congress last month not to

field Patel in the elections, but they still made him the

candidate,'' said Mohammad Yusaf, 56, a clerk in the city

government. ``But we are caught between a ditch and a well.

To defeat the BJP, we will have to vote for Patel. But our

heart is not in it.''

Mr. Speaker, as we come back to Washington this January and set our priorities for the first session of the 108th Congress, I want to remind my colleagues that we have a looming crisis--a crisis of spirit, of policies, and of economics. This crisis is a looming and immediate economic crisis to the education system, to health care systems, to long-term housing and care for the disabled, to un-addressed research needs, and most especially to an increasing number of families across the country. This crisis is the autism epidemic.

Over the last three years, you have heard me speak many times on this issue--and you will continue to hear me speak on this issue because we have our work cut out for us. You well know that my own grandson was adversely affected by a series of vaccines and became autistic. When I looked at what I thought was a rare condition, I found that my grandson was one among many similarly injured.

Our health agencies have spent much of the last decade in denial about this problem. To date, they have not replicated clinical studies that point to a connection between autism entercolitis and the Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR) vaccine. Nor have our health agencies adequately addressed the dangers of thimerosal in pediatric vaccines and the fact that tens of thousands of families feel their children were injured from thimerosal-containing vaccines, leaving their child autistic.

Autism is a condition that has no known cure. Children, whether autistic from birth as a result of vaccine injury, genetic defects, or as a result of some other environmental influence, require lots of special medical and educational attention. The earlier a diagnosis is made and interventions are begun, the better the long-term outlook can be for a child. This is why the programs such as First Steps in Indiana are so important. However, this attention gets to be very expensive. Many of the private schools, specifically designed to educate children with autism have annual tuitions of $60,000 or more. Many of these children, when in public schools, require a full-time one-on-one aide, and numerous other special accommodations including speech and occupational therapies. Mainstream and Special Education Teachers need special autism teacher training. Every child with autism or any disability is entitled under Federal law to a free and appropriate education.

Prevalence of Autism

Last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published in the Journal of the American Medical Association their Prevalence Study of Autism Rates in metropolitan Atlanta. In this report, they acknowledged that autism prevalence rates published prior to 1985 were 4 to 5 per 10,000 for autism spectrum disorders and 1 to 2 per 10,000 for the more narrow definition of autism. In Atlanta in 1996, the rates in children ages 3 to 10 had skyrocketed to a range of 19 per 10,000 to 47 per 10,000. Two years ago, the

CDC published their 1998 prevalence study of children in Brick Township, New Jersey and found that 40 per 10,000 children were autistic and 67 per 10,000 were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

Let's do the math here. According to our latest Census, there are 72.3 million children under the age of 18 in this country. If we extrapolate the Atlanta numbers nationwide, that would mean that in 1996 we may have had between 137,370 and 339,810 children under the age of 18 with autism in this country. And if we use the newer 1998 Brick Township numbers, nationwide we had 289,200 children with autism and 484,410 children on the autism spectrum.

Education System Burden

The Department of Education tells us that it spends on average $12,234 more each year for a child with autism than it does for educating a non-disabled child. ($18,790 average cost of educating a child with autism compared to $6,556 to educate a non-disabled child.) So that would mean our education system needs to find additional resources on the magnitude of 3.5 to 5.9 billion dollars each year to educate children with autism. Since many of the children in our system are not getting the services they really need, the $18,790 is probably much lower than it ought to be. Realistically, schools will likely need about $40,000 per child with autism to provide the full breadth of services needed. So that would mean, the education system needs to budget approximately $16 billion dollars a year more just for children with autism.

Most of this additional tax burden falls on the local and state tax base. We in Congress need to act quickly this session to keep our promise to pay the 40 percent Federal portion to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part B. We haven't even come close to keeping that promise and local school jurisdictions are feeling the strain of carrying this burden. Many children go without services and that is a travesty.

Family Economic Burden

We have learned from families that they often spend between $20,000 and $50,000 each year, much of it not reimbursed to provide care and services for their autistic children. This is a huge burden for any family to carry. There are no magic bullet approaches to treating autism. As yet there is no cure. Half of the children with autism will never speak. Many of these children have severe food sensitivities, especially to casein and gluten, products that are in almost every processed food. Many are highly sensitive to many chemicals--even perfumes. Exposure to these foods or chemicals causes a serious deterioration in behavior. Many have autoimmune disorders; have enzyme deficiencies, and heavy metal toxicities. Some individuals with autism will go through bouts of self-injurious behavior. Some, particularly autistic boys, as they hit their teen years when all teenage boys experience that surge of testosterone, may experience aggressive behavior, requiring medication. While some individuals with autism, those with higher functioning autism or Asperger's Syndrome may be able to go on to college and even live independently, the vast majority of today's children with autism will never have that opportunity unless we can turn this epidemic around. The vast majority of these boys and girls will never have the chance to serve in the armed forces, to become doctors, lawyers, teachers, or astronauts. They will never have the chance that you and I have had to run for political office.

Adults with Autism--Long-Term Care and Disability Housing

We have no good numbers on how many autistic adults there are in this country. Many are institutionalized because their parents can no longer care for them. Obviously, our current infrastructure for long-term care for the disabled is not equipped to manage the more than tenfold increase they will be facing in the next decade.

Research Needs

As I mentioned, there is no cure for autism. The research response to looking at causes, treatments, and possible cures for autism has been vastly inadequate. Out of a twenty-seven billion dollar budget, the National Institutes of Health has focused less than sixty million dollars on autism. A condition they say affects 1 in 250 children in this country and they only invested sixty million dollars to address the epidemic. And unfortunately, most of those sixty million dollars will never translate into treatments for autism or in answering the questions about a possible vaccine injury connection. The CDC, while spending over 930 million dollars on AIDS last year invested only about $11 million dollars on autism. We must treat this like an epidemic and mobilize research and services resources to address the epidemic.

And most disturbing to families of vaccine-injured autistic children is that none of the government agencies have adequately addressed their concerns about thimerosal and the MMR vaccine. Instead of a replication of clinical evidence indicating low-level measles infection lingering in the gastrointestinal tract of children who became autistic after receiving the MMR vaccine, they cited CDC funded population-based epidemiological studies and used these epidemiological studies to say there is no connection between MMR and autism. In fact, epidemiological research cannot disprove clinical research. This is like trying to make lemonade with apples.

And in two difference prevalence studies--in New Jersey and Georgia, the CDC had an opportunity to do a thorough evaluation of a potential link between autism and immunizations and they chose not to. In fact, the families in Brick Township requested this analysis. The CDC evaluated environmental influences and all other possible causes, but they chose not to look at the immunization records and see if there might be a link.

In the CDC's initial evaluation in their Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) looking at a possible link between thimerosal-containing vaccines and any health conditions, they found a statistically significant correlation between thimerosal-containing vaccines and attention deficit disorder, neurological developmental disorders, speech and language delays and tics. After these initial findings, the CDC conducted a second evaluation that was in a much smaller population and did not find the same correlations. It is obvious that much more research is needed. We had to fight for more than two years to get the CDC to open up access to the VSD data, and unfortunately we have learned that some independent researchers are still having a hard time accessing this data. The Department needs to make sure that independent researchers can easily access this data to conduct replications of existing studies and to conduct new studies that the Department has not done.

We hear repeatedly in Congressional hearings, in media communications, and through reports that ``there is no evidence that proves a connection between vaccines and autism.'' And of course, if the Department of Health and Human Services never funds or conducts the right studies, the evidence proving a connection will never exist. But the lack of well-designed research asking the right questions does not mean that a connection is not there. What it does mean is that our health agencies have failed the American public.

For ten years, the Institute of Medicine has asked for research to be conducted in this area--to look at the autism-vaccine connection. This independent agency has repeatedly found that there is a paucity of studies evaluating vaccine adverse reactions. They found that there was inadequate science to rule in or rule out a connection between autism and thimerosal, but they also found that is was ``biologically plausible'' for such an injury to occur. We continue to see the Department of Health and Human Service's agencies stalling on doing the right kinds of studies. Vaccines are the only medications that are mandated for American citizens to receive as a condition of school and day care attendance and in some instances, for employment. Therefore, it is even more important that vaccines are as safe as possible, that only those vaccines that are really needed are mandated, and that we accelerate the level of well designed studies that actually answer the questions on vaccine adverse reactions.

No More Conflicts of Interest in Research and Policy

It is important for individuals and institutions that are going to conduct this research not to have financial ties to the manufacturers of vaccines. It is a travesty that the NIH and CDC only seem to fund those institutions that also receive a lot of pharmaceutical funding and do not fund those researchers who have chosen not to accept industry money and who are in the trenches answering the tough questions. Some of those researchers have been before the Committee on Government Reform. They had long histories of receiving NIH funding, but as soon as they started looking at vaccine injury issues, their NIH funding dried up. This is a clear indication to me that out health agencies are more devoted to the vaccine industry than to the vaccine injured. This must change. It is also a travesty that so many of the experts that HHS agencies appoint to sit on advisory committees are individuals who have financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program

Late in the 107th Congress, we as a Congress failed this same community, Mr. Speaker, by tacking provisions into the Homeland Security Act which cut off the ability of families to seek legal recourse to the manufacturers of thimerosal, while not including provisions to include those families whose statute of limitation had expired, in the Vaccine Injury Compensation program. We as a Congress have failed this community. This retroactive provision was not about homeland security.

We tripled infants' exposure to thimerosal through their vaccines for the first six months of life in the late 1980's. And yet it was not until 1999 that the FDA realized what they had done. It was more than ten years before they

realized the dramatic increase in infants' exposure to mercury. Many families realized that their child became autistic after receiving vaccines, but they had nowhere to turn. Doctors discounted the possible connection because they were not informed until late 1999 of this thimerosal/mercury exposure in vaccines. Many of these families were not aware that the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program existed until well after their three year statute of limitations had expired. The Department of Health and Human Services acknowledges that their media campaigns on this program were inadequate. In fact it has been the advent of the Internet and online autism and vaccine injury discussion groups that first informed most of these families of this program.

We must work quickly this year to first repeal the provisions of the Homeland Security Act that cut off families' legal options and second to pass legislation that will improve the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program for these families and for all individuals who face an injury from a covered vaccine. There is over 1.3 billion dollars in the trust fund. It is wrong that families have to fight for five, seven, even ten years to be compensated. It was not supposed to be a fight or a long process. The over-zealous government lawyers and program managers have lost sight of what this program is about. The Compensation program was supposed to be compassionate and non-litigious. When it was a close call, the program was supposed to rule in favor of the injured. Instead, the government goes to battle on many of the close cases and challenges the special masters when they lose. Oftentimes, when the Special Master rules in favor of the injured, Justice Department lawyers and HHS program managers call it a ``bad decision by the Special Master.'' They see this as litigation and not compensation and because of that mindset, in many instances; it has become exactly what Congress was trying to avoid--a difficult, litigious, drawn-out process.

Mr. Speaker, in November I wrote the President and asked him to host a White House Conference on Autism to address many of these issues. Today the families of vaccine-injured children are in Washington to protest the loss of their legal options as a result of the Homeland Security Act provisions. I hope that my colleagues will take the time to listen to these families--their constituents--as they come around to their offices this week. Many of my colleagues are already members of the Autism Caucus and will be actively working on autism issues this year. Every member of Congress needs to pay attention to this issue. Autism and vaccine issues are not partisan issues. I am pleased that in the last congressional session we set aside partisanship and focused on the issues. I hope that as we bring legislation through committees and to the floor for votes, that I can count on all of your support to put the families first, to do the right thing, and pass effective, compassionate legislation. I am introducing legislation today to repeal the provisions in the Homeland Security Act and I hope to have all of your cooperation in getting this done quickly. These families deserve justice and the opportunity to seek compensation.

Mr. Speaker, everybody knows that mercury is a toxic substance. If it is spilled on the ground, they evacuate the area and they bring in the fire department and they clean it up with all kinds of paraphernalia to protect the citizens and the firemen that are working on it, and yet it is injected into our children's bodies in our vaccinations, and in the Homeland Security bill this year they eliminated the possibility of the families who have been damaged and the children who have been damaged by the mercury in these vaccines from having any chance to get restitution from the pharmaceutical companies or from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund. That is criminal. It needs to be changed.

We have the fastest growing epidemic in America and the parents have nowhere to go, and it is caused in large part by the mercury in the vaccines. This is just tragic. We need to correct that in the technical corrections bill very, very quickly so these parents have some recourse. They are mortgaging their homes. They are going bankrupt trying to take care of these children. One in 10,000 children used to be autistic. Now it is one in 180. It is an absolute epidemic and this government prohibited the families from finding a way to take care of their children, and these kids are going to grow up. These kids are going to grow up, and they are going to be a burden on society unless we do something about it now.

And in addition Mr. Speaker, I just found out that the vaccines that we are giving to our military personnel who are over in the Persian Gulf who may be going to war with Iraq, they are being vaccinated with vaccines that contain mercury as well.

We need to get mercury out of all vaccines and we need to make absolutely sure that the parents who have damaged children have some course to get restitution this government should not block. It is criminal.