Controversial provisions could delay Senate homeland vote

By Brody Mullins and April Fulton, CongressDaily

While senators remain focused on debate over personnel rules for the new
Homeland Security Department, that issue is far from the only controversial
matter remaining in the bill. From vaccine liability protections to a delay
in an airport baggage-screening deadline, the GOP-drafted bill that passed
the House Wednesday and heads to the Senate Thursday includes contentious
measures quietly written into the bill as the congressional session draws to
a close.

Senate leaders, determined to create the Homeland Security Department before
the year's end, are likely to accept most of the provisions. Still, the new
debates could push a final vote on the underlying bill into next week.

Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., who wrote
the Democrats' version of the bill, said he is "especially concerned" about
the latest GOP bill, because it contains "a number of special-interest
provisions that are being sprung on the Senate without prior warning or
consideration. This is really not the time for that."

"We all ought to be focusing on the terrorist threat, the need to create a
Department of Homeland Security to meet that threat, and not on using a
vehicle that is moving, probably to passage, to put into it a host of pet
personal projects," Lieberman said.

Chief among the concerns of Lieberman and others are provisions to eliminate
or reduce a manufacturer's product liability, two of which relate to
vaccines. According to the new bill, a broad range of items, from {*filter*} to
life preservers, could escape liability lawsuits if the head of the homeland
security department designated them as "necessary for security purposes."

Limited liability protections already in place for vaccines would be
expanded to include vaccine components, such as the preservative Thimerosal,
manufactured by Eli Lilly & Co. and already the subject of several
class-action lawsuits by parents who claim the product's high mercury levels
have caused their children's autism.

An aide to Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who had included a similar provision in
a vaccine bill he introduced earlier in the year, said the senator did not
press House GOP leaders to include the Thimerosal provision in the homeland
bill.

The aide said the language essentially codifies a recommendation an
independent vaccine advisory committee made to the Clinton administration.

"There is a concern about liability destabilizing the vaccine system," he
said.

But Democratic aides point out that Thimerosal is a preservative unnecessary
for the production of the vaccines and suggest that the language is an
effort to cut back on the lawsuits.

Yet another provision in the bill would require liability claims against
smallpox vaccine manufacturers to go through the federal tort system. The
federal government would pay the damages, and punitive damages would be
banned.

The new bill also would limit liabilities for airport screening companies
and high-tech firms that develop equipment essential to ensure domestic
security.

It would aid the airline industry further by extending aviation war-risk
insurance for a year and giving airports another year to install
baggage-screening equipment. It would also allow pilots to carry handguns in
airline{*filter*}pits.

The latest version of the homeland bill strips several provisions that were
top priorities to key members of Congress.

Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and
Lieberman were enraged to find out that the new bill removes language
calling for an independent commission to examine the roots of the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks.

Without an investigation by such an independent commission, Daschle said,
"we will never fully have an objective evaluation."

Daschle also said the bill guts congressional oversight over a critical part
of the federal government.

The bill does not include $1.2 billion to increase passenger rail and tunnel
security, though the funds were in the earlier Senate version.

"We're very disappointed," said Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del., a rail advocate
and former member of the Amtrak board of directors. "Our failure to act to
improve security of our rail travel is an Achilles heel in our nation's
efforts to secure our transportation system," Carper said.

The bill also drops provisions that would have applied Davis-Bacon
protections to workers contracting with the Homeland Security Department and
a provision that would have safeguarded the public's ability to use the
Freedom of Information Act to find out information about the department.

Mark Wegner contributed to this report

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