Wampum

It's happened all before. A late night session on the Hill, wrangling over legislation, when an unrelated measure is quietly slipped on at the very last minute. In this case, many of the actors are the same, including the big headliner, Majority Leader Bill Frist. Even the subject, overarching liability protection for a major Republican funder, BigPharma, remains the same.

The details are yet unclear, as the Congressional Record hasn't updated for last night, but AP and Reuters are reporting the general gist: Sen. Frist, ignoring calls by Democrats to merely place any bird-flu vaccine on the list of those covered under the National Vaccine Compensation Fund, set up two decades ago to compensate children injured by routine childhood shots, wants even stricter liability coverage for vaccines yet unproved to even work, let alone be safe.

The Shafer Autism Report (via email, not web link yet) this morning has this:

Our latest information is that the Department of Defense Appropriations Bill Conference Report was completed, the conference meeting adjourned and then the Leadership slipped the language in! We are informed that the bill contains language giving immunity to drug companies and a SHAM compensation provision.

The bill hasn't been filed yet so we can't independently confirm this information. We have been told to watch the Authorization Bill and Budget Reconciliation too. The problem is getting copies of the bill drafts. Congressional Leadership is hiding them from the public and even from their colleagues in Congress. We think the Senate vote on the Department of Defense Appropriations will take place tomorrow so there is still time to tell Congress what you think.

I have to take Grace to school (first day, new school), but will continue to update this post as details develop.