Senator: Smallpox compensation plan will move quickly

Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., Thursday yesterday said a White House plan to resolve compensation issues in the national smallpox immunization plan would move "very quickly" through Congress and he warned that vaccinated health workers are urgently needed to protect the United States against a potential biological weapons attack.

Gregg, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said that the proposed legislation would move to the full Senate by the end of the month.

"We need to do this one fast," he told a press conference hosted by the Health and Human Services Department to introduce the Bush administration's smallpox vaccine compensation plan.

Held back by concerns over the vaccine's side effects and the lack of related compensation, fewer than 13,000 medical workers have been vaccinated out of an anticipated 500,000. The legislation would provide $262,100 to vaccine recipients, or their families, who die or suffer permanent disability. It would also provide limited compensation, after five missed days of work, for those who suffer less serious side effects.

"People should certainly sign up because this legislation is going to pass," Gregg said.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., the committee's senior Democrat, believes the White House plan is a "step in the right direction" but he has some areas of concern, according his aide Jim Manley.

The new proposal "falls short of what is needed to compensate injured workers adequately," Manley said. As examples of shortcomings, he cited the absence of funding for states to carry out their immunization plans, the cap on compensation and the five-day period before sickened workers begin to receive lost wages.

"Senator Kennedy shares Senator Gregg's desire to move quickly. That being said there are some concerns," Manley said.

In a statement yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., gave his support to the administration plan.

"As majority leader, I'm committed to moving legislation quickly through the Senate so that a strong smallpox compensation program is in place for our nation's health care workers," Frist said.

Gregg said he could not predict when the legislation would become law.

"I can't speak for the House of Representatives, I wish I could," he said.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., recently proposed a bill in the House that would provide a more generous compensation plan than the White House is championing.

Waxman yesterday applauded the attention given to the compensation issue, but questioned whether the plan went far enough.

"It doesn't seem fair for a worker who we ask to take the vaccine to bear the cost of up to five days lost wages if they are injured by the vaccine, or to face this cap on wages," Waxman said in a statement.

Gregg joined top U.S. health officials at the Washington press conference yesterday to say that the United States must quickly improve its ability to respond to a smallpox attack.

"Now more than ever, we really need to scale up and speed up," said Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Also speaking at the press conference, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced that hundreds of federal health workers would be immunized to augment the regional and state efforts. He said also that the second phase of the immunization plan, in which millions of emergency workers are to be vaccinated, could begin soon.