William Tauzin: “I yield myself 2 minutes to briefly set the record straight. There has been extraordinary negotiations with the minority…”

“I yield myself 2 minutes to briefly set the record straight. There has been extraordinary negotiations with the minority on this bill, over 2 weeks of it. The administration brought this bill to us as an emergency. It called upon us immediately to give authority to provide these benefits to people who would volunteer to vaccinate American citizens in the event of an attack of smallpox in this country, which could come at any time, as we know, particularly as hostilities are engaged in the Middle East and Iraq. It brought it to us as an emergency and we took over 2 weeks to negotiate. And we negotiated over a dozen changes, I am told. The most important change we made was to bring up that disability cap from $50,000 a year, that out-of-work cap, to the same level we provide for policemen and firemen in this country. And, Mr. Speaker, I would say to the gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman) that this is a supplemental program, just as that program is. It is on top of. It is full secondary coverage of medical benefits with no deductibles. That is a lot better than most plans. It is primary lump sum disability and death benefit that, under the Federal Public Safety Officers and Employees is equal to $262,000. It is secondary coverage for temporary and partial disability from $50,000 a year, again we raised it from the administration provision, all the way up to the $262,000 level.”