Democrats Lambaste Gregg Smallpox Compensation Bill
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and several other Democrats lambasted a bill Wednesday introduced by Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., that would compensate health-care workers and other first responders who were injured by smallpox vaccines.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which Gregg chairs, voted 11-10 to send the bill to the Senate floor and rejected amendments offered by Kennedy, the committee’s senior Democrat, who called the bill “completely, totally inadequate.” Kennedy said Gregg’s bill would not provide guaranteed funding for compensation, “coerces” workers to get vaccinated by putting a time limit on the availability of compensation and would cover only limited health care needs.
The bill is an attempt to encourage health care workers and first responders, such as police officers and firefighters, to get smallpox vaccines by ensuring they or their families will be compensated for illness or death. As Kennedy noted, many states have ended their vaccination programs, which he called a “disaster,” because so few workers were volunteering for inoculation.
“This program is not going to be successful unless the people, workers, sign up for it. That’s the bottom line,” Kennedy said. “You’ve got to treat the people fairly on this, and this legislation does not do it. It’s a ‘tin cup’ response to a major health threat, and I think it insults the first responders in this country.”
Gregg said he disagreed with Kennedy’s characterization of the bill, adding, “It’s not an insult, it’s a genuine attempt to address the issue.” Gregg also said charts and graphs Kennedy presented were “wrong and misleading, and hopefully not intentionally so.
Today anybody who gets vaccinated (against) smallpox . . . gets no compensation at all. Nothing. And that’s the way it’s going to be until we pass this bill.”
Gregg said that under his proposed compensation plan, a health-care worker would get more compensation than a soldier wounded in battle. Kennedy criticized the bill, however, for capping payments for medical expenses and lost wages and for failing to compensate people with minor injuries.
The House defeated a similar bill Monday when 21 Republicans joined Democrats to vote against it. New Hampshire Republican Reps. Charlie Bass and Jeb Bradley voted for the bill.
However, the House Appropriations Committee set aside $35 million for the smallpox compensation fund Tuesday as part of President Bush’s emergency spending bill. New Hampshire Congress members said they will vote for the supplemental bill, which the Senate began debating Wednesday.
White House spokesman Ken Lisaius said the administration supports Gregg’s bill.
“The administration continues to work closely with members of the Senate and supports efforts to pass legislation that will provide compensation to those health-care workers and medical response team members who volunteer to make sure America is protected,” Lisaius said. “They need to have similar compensation available to them such as that received by other first responders.”
Smallpox vaccination programs have come under scrutiny recently and two states-New York and Illinois-halted immunizations after three people died last week from heart attacks just days after being vaccinated. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon also suspended vaccinations.
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
