- "Similar to the legislative sleight of hand employed
in the Homeland Security Bill fiasco in 2002, the sponsors of S.3 are manipulating
the political process by tying domestic programs affecting every American's
health and safety to unrelated "anti-terrorism" programs. In
this way they are attempting to make legitimate opposition to S. 3 politically
unacceptable."
- -------
-
- Dear Members and Friends -
-
- This is a VERY important alert that requires your attention
AND action. Please read through and use the sample letter provided to communicate
your message to the senators listed in this email.
-
- THIS IS A PRESS RELEASE FROM www.NoMercy.org
-
- LET THESE SENATORS KNOW HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS.
- GO TO THIS SITE FOR SUGGESTIONS ON LETTER WRITING AND
FAX COMPOSITION:
- www.NoMercury.org.
-
- Dear Parent/Advocate:
-
- Please look closely at US Senate Bill 3. A copy of the
bill is available at www.NoMercury.org
-
- Under the guise of "Protecting America in the War
on Terror" US Senators Gregg, Frist, Sessions, DeWine, Allen, Santorum,
McConnell, and DeMint have introduced S. 3 which calls for many sweeping
changes in pharmaceutical product liability, vaccine regulation, policy,
research and The Vaccine Injury Compensation Act. This directly impacts
those families whose children have suffered adverse vaccine reactions,
Gulf War Veterans, and any other veteran who suffers from adverse reactions
from the multiple vaccines given (remember the ill-fated anthrax vaccine
and small-pox vaccines).
-
- The most recent bill introduced in the U.S. Senate (S.
3) is aimed at liability protection of drugs and vaccines and to prevent
state legislation to ban Thimerosal (mercury) in vaccines. This bill is
worse than the Eli Lilly provision of the Homeland Security Act and is
a direct "gift" to the pharmaceutical companies. The pharmaceutical
industry gave almost $45 million in campaign contributions for Presidential
and Congressional elections since 2002 (www.opensecrets.org) and the health
care/pharmaceutical industry has over 600 lobbyists in Washington, D.C.
alone. If constituents do not weigh in on this horrendous bill, the American
people will suffer; having their civil rights violated and state autonomy
will be compromised. It is an insult to every state elected official and
every American.
-
- This bill is being "fast-tracked" and is already
on the agenda at the National Vaccine Advisory Committee meeting, scheduled
for February 8, 2005 at 10:45 am: http://www.hhs.gov/nvpo/nvac/agenda.html.
-
- It would also severely limit the public access to any
information regarding vaccine research, vaccine production, vaccine regulations,
including, but not limited to meetings about vaccines and "countermeasures"
for pandemics, epidemics, etc. This bill places severe restrictions on
FOIA and will impact your ability to find out about drug/vaccine safety,
regulation and policy. The last thing this country needs is to give government
the ability to hold more "closed" meetings without accountability
to the media/public.
-
- Furthermore, Sec. 761 (a)(1) would preempt any state
legislation regulating vaccines. It would preempt State authority and legislation
dealing with vaccines or vaccines components, such as Thimerosal (mercury).
Missouri currently has three bills pending to ban mercury (Thimerosal)
in vaccines. They are Missouri SB 49, SB74 and HB 131. The States of Iowa
and California have already banned mercury in vaccines yet this bill will
preempt such legislation forcing states to allow vaccine manufacturers
to continue using toxic levels of mercury in vaccines (in excess of Federal
EPA safety guidelines). Numerous other states are pursuing similar legislation
such as Maryland, Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington. Various
other states are also planning to introduce legislation banning mercury
in vaccines within the next few weeks/months, such as Ohio, Illinois, North
Carolina, Michigan, Massachusetts and Minnesota.
-
- This horrendous piece of Federal legislation would even
prohibit the warning or informed consent provisions for drugs, vaccines
and biologics. Additionally, this bill would prohibit punitive damages
and cap compensatory damages against any pharmaceutical company. This takes
the saying "to the victor goes the spoils" to a whole new and
ominous level. If the FDA approves it, the company making it is protected
from liability. We have all seen how attentive the FDA has been to protect
Americans from dangerous drugs such as Vioxx.
-
- This cleverly crafted legislation includes something
nearly every American will understandably want to support: raising the
death gratuity for families of soldiers killed in Iraq from $12,000 to
$100,000 and increases other military benefits. Including an unrelated
but popular provision that should stand alone legislatively seeks only
to cloud the issues addressed in the major portion of this bill's language.
Every American supports increased benefits for our soldiers and their families
and that includes us. As parents and loyal Americans, however, we believe
that S. 3 has been carefully crafted to unfairly paint parents who seek
justice for vaccine injured children into a political corner.
-
- Similar to the legislative sleight of hand employed in
the Homeland Security Bill fiasco in 2002 the sponsors of S.3 are manipulating
the political process by tying domestic programs affecting every American's
health and safety to unrelated "anti-terrorism" programs. In
this way they are attempting to make legitimate opposition to S. 3 politically
unacceptable.
-
- We question why politically popular legislation supporting
our troops is tied to a bill with far-reaching provisions that affect and
the safety of vaccines given to millions of American children. Let's not
confuse the issues. We believe that by casting the vaccine safety provisions
in the language of fighting terrorism (epidemic "countermeasures"
is S.3's new code word for "vaccines"--this is truly Orwellian
doublespeak) the American people are being misled about S.3's impact on
vaccine safety programs. Let's deal with one thing at a time. Taking away
the right of states to protect their citizens from dangerous vaccine components
and drugs like Vioxx and Paxil does not translate into protecting our children--from
terrorism or anything else. All it does is give control of these matters--vaccines
and drugs--to a few powerful people who operate behind closed doors. The
vaccine safety provisions are pharma support positions, plain and simple,
and are not necessary for bio-terror defense, at least not in this form.
-
- It would also overhaul The National Vaccine Injury Compensation
Program to the detriment of children and families. Other parts of this
legislation are extremely troublesome as well and we have included a copy
in pdf format for your review. This is not a benign bill--this goes directly
to counter state and parental efforts to protect children from vaccine
injuries.
-
- Read a few excerpts below. If this bill is as concerning
to you as it is to other parents and many members of the medical community,
please contact all members of the US Senate, particularly your Senators
and members of the US Senate Finance Committee (see their contact info
below).
- This is not anti-terrorism--this is Federalism gone wild.
-
- Finance Committee Republicans on Finance Committee Grassley
Charles R- IA Chairman, Committee on Finance
- 135 Hart Senate Bldg. Washington, DC 20510-1501 Tel:
(202) 224.3744 Fax: (202) 228 0578 http://grassley.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Home
-
- Hatch Orrin R- UT
- 104 Hart Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Tel: (202)
224-5251 Fax: (202) 224-6331 http://hatch.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Offices.Contact
-
- Lott Trent R- MS
- 487 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-6253 Fax: 202-224-2262 http://lott.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Email
-
-
- Snowe, Olympia R-ME
- 154 Russell Senate Office Buildg. Washington DC 20510-1903
Ph 202-224-5344 Fax 202-244-1946 olympia@snowe.senate.gov
-
-
- Kyl Jon R- AZ
- 730 Hart Senate Building Washington, D.C. 20510 Phone:
(202) 224-4521 Fax: (202) 224-2207 http://kyl.senate.gov/contact.cfm
-
- Thomas, Craig R- WY United States Senate
- 307 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone: 202-224-6441 Fax: 202-224-1724 http://www.senate.gov/%7Ethomas/html/contact.html
-
- Santorum Rick R- PA
- 511 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510-3804
Phone: 202-224-6324 TTYD Number: 202-224-5024 Fax: 202-228-0604 http://santorum.senate.gov
-
- Frist Bill R- TN Office of Senator Bill Frist
- 509 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510
- 202-224-3344
- 202-228-1264 (fax) http://frist.senate.gov/index.cfm
-
-
- Smith Gordon R- OR
- 404 Russell Building Washington, DC 20510-3704 Phone:
(202)224-3753 Fax:(202)228-3997 http://gsmith.senate.gov/webform.htm
-
- Bunning Jim R- KY
- 1717 Dixie Highway Suite 180 Fort Wright KY, 41011 Phone
859-341-6480 Fax: 859-341-6482 Jim@bunning04.com
-
- Crapo, Mike R- ID
- 239 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510
phone 202-224-6142 FAX 202-228-1375 TDD 202-224-2806 http://www.crapoforsenate.com/contact_us.asp
-
- Democrats on Finance Committee
-
- Baucus Max D- MT
- 511 Hart Senate Office Bldg. Washington, D.C. 20510
- (202) 224-2651
- (202) 224-4700 (Fax)
- (800) 332-6106 (from MT)
- (202) 224-1998 (TDD) http://www.senate.gov/~baucus/emailmax.html
-
- Rockefeller, IV, John D. D- WV
- 531 Hart Senate Office Bldg Washington, DC 20510 Ph:
202-224-6472 Fax: 202-224-7665 Email Address: senator@rockefeller.senate.gov
-
- Conrad, Kent D-ND
- 530 Hart Senate Office Building United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510-3403 Fax: (202) 224-7776 Online: http://conrad.senate.gov
E-mail: http://conrad.senate.gov/webform.html
-
- Jeffords, James (I - VT)
- 728 Hart Senate Office Bldg. Washington DC 20510 Phone:
(202) 224-5141 Fax (202) 228-0776 http://jeffords.senate.gov/contact-form.html
-
- Bingaman, Jeff D- NM
- 413 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510
- (202) 224-5141
- (202) 224-5521 TDD: (202) 224-1792 http://www.senate.gov/~jeffords/contact-form.html
-
- Kerry, John F D-MA
- 304 Russell Bldg. Third Floor Washington D.C. 20510
- (202) 224-2742 - Phone
- (202) 224-8525 - Fax http://kerry.senate.gov/bandwidth/contact/email.html
-
- Lincoln Blanche L. D- AR
- 355 Dirksen Senate Building Washington, DC 20510-0404
Phone: (202)224-4843 Fax: (202)228-1371 http://lincoln.senate.gov/webform.html
-
- Wyden Ron D- OR
- 230 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510-3703
- (202) 224-5244 fax (202-228-2717) http://wyden.senate.gov/contact/
-
- Schumer Charles D- NY
- 313 Hart Senate Building Washington, DC 20510 Phone:
202-224-6542 Fax: 202-228-3027 TDD: 202-224-0420 http://www.senate.gov/%7Eschumer/webform.html
- soup - ask
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