November 13, 2002 4:19 PM
Subject: URGENT! Smallpox
bill on House floor tonight!
Association of American
Physicians & Surgeons
The Voice for Private Physicians
Since 1943
URGENT! Unlimited Smallpox Vaccines Powers in New Homeland
Security Bill
-HR 5701 will be voted on tonight in House
-Most
won't have time to read the 480-page bill
-Similar to defeated state
Emergency Health Powers Act (MEHPA)
-Gives HHS Secretary unlimited power
to declare bioterrorism emergency
-Plus unlimited power to vaccinate,
quarantine?
-Tell Congress and White House to remove this section. ACT
TONIGHT!
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The new Homeland Security Department bill has hit the floor of the House
of Representatives this afternoon, and will be voted on tonight!
Most of
the Members won't even have a chance to read the 480 pages of H.R. 5701 before
they vote on it in hours. But we have and some of it is alarmingly familiar,
reading like the state Model Emergency Health Powers Acts (MEHPA) that so many
have worked so hard to defeat this year. Instead of giving the unlimited powers
to a governor, the powers will now be bestowed on the Secretary of HHS.
Specifically, Section 304, Subsection C "Administration of counter
measures against smallpox" gives the Secretary of HHS these unchecked powers
(pg. 76):
--Declare an actual or POTENTIAL bio-terrorist or other kind
of incident
--He can administer "countermeasures" to a category of
individuals or everyone
--He can continually extend the declaration
without Congress's consent
Also, if you are harmed, you cannot sue or
take any other civil remedy.
This section will give the Secretary
unlimited power to define a real or potential threat, to take any measures he
decides, and to do it for as long as he wants.
WE MUST ELIMINATE THIS
SECTION AND WE MUST ACT QUICKLY
IMMEDIATELY tell your Member of Congress
not to pass the bill tonight with Section 304, Subsection C "Administration of
counter measures against smallpox." This section must be deleted until we have
an honest accounting of how much power it would give the Secretary.
Questions to be answered:
What are the "countermeasures" that
will be taken? Quarantines? Forced smallpox immunizations?
What is the
definition of a "bioterrorist incident" or other incident to merit a
declaration?
What constitutes a "potential" incident?
Who will
act as a "check and balance" to the Secretary's unlimited powers?
Contact your Member of Congress: www.house.gov/writerep"
Contact the White House: president@whitehouse.gov
Read the text of the subsection (1 page) www.aapsonline.org/confiden/page76.pdf"
Read the text of entire bill: www.aapsonline.org/confiden/homeland.pdf"
Association of American Physicians & Surgeons
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