The following letter, which is self-explanatory, was received from New York
Attorney John F. McHugh on April 26th. Action by all of us is urgently
needed!
Bernard Rimland, Ph.D.
Director
Autism Research Institute
+++++++++++++++++++++
Dear Sir:
As you may know Congressman Dave Weldon of Florida and Jerold Nadler of New
York had introduced a bill to make obtaining compensation under the Vaccine
Injury Compensation Program easier. Today I was informed by Stuart Burns.
Congressman Weldon's legislative director, that the bill, now sponsored by
Dan Burton of Indiana and Henry Waxman of California, is in trouble. The
vaccine manufacturers have lobbied heavily against it.
The Bill is HR 3741, the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program
Improvement Act of 2002. Mr. Burns tells me that to get this bill passed
we need to have a major letter writing campaign by parents of injured
children directed both to the representative and to the J. Dennis Hastert,
Speaker, United States House of Representatives, The Capitol, Washington,
D.C. 20515. Fax: 202-225-0697. If we do not do this, the bill has only
about a 30% chance of passage. Local representatives need to be urged to
co-sponsor the bill. The Speaker must be urged to bring the bill up for a
vote. If possible parents should visit their representative's district
office and if possible ask to speak to the representative personally.
I would hope that you could energize your members. The bill provides for
the payment of the costs of medical experts from the trust fund as they are
incurred. This provision will be particularly useful to the parents of
Autism Spectrum children as the tests needed to link this type of disorder
to a vaccine are expensive and hard to find.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Very truly yours,
John F. McHugh
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