I 
110TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1973 
To improve vaccine safety research, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 19, 2007 
Mr. WELDON of Florida (for himself, Mrs. MALONEY of New York, Mr. BUR-
TON of Indiana, and Mr. SMITH of New Jersey) introduced the following 
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To improve vaccine safety research, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Vaccine Safety and Public Confidence Assurance Act of 
2007’’ . 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents of 
this Act is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
Sec. 2. Findings. 
Sec. 3. Purpose. 
Sec. 4. Establishment of Agency for Vaccine Safety Evaluation. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds as follows: 
(1) The Nation’s vaccine program has greatly 
reduced human suffering from infectious disease by 
preventing and reducing the outbreak of vaccine-pre-
ventable diseases. 
(2) The prestigious scientific journal Nature 
has noted that to maintain public confidence in vac-
cines ‘‘there is a strong case for a well-resourced 
independent agency that commends the trust of both 
the government and the public’’. Nature 439, 1–2. 
(3) Public confidence in governmental vaccine- 
safety monitoring agencies is critical to building and 
maintaining public confidence in vaccine safety. 
(4) Actual or perceived conflicts of interest un-
dermine the credibility of vaccine-safety assurances 
and reports issued by those with conflicts of interest. 
(5) The Federal Government has a responsi-
bility to take all steps feasible to ensure that re-
search evaluating the safety of existing and future 
vaccines is of the highest quality and free from con-
flicts of interest. 
(6) The Centers for Disease Control and Pre-
vention is responsible for promoting both high im-
munization rates and vaccine safety, duties perceived 
by some to constitute a conflict of interest. 
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(7) The actual or perceived conflict of interest 
between vaccine promotion and vaccine safety has 
been compounded by the fact that vaccine-safety 
programs and the National Immunization Program 
have needed to compete against each other for 
funds. Funding for vaccine-safety research should be 
completely independent from other vaccine-related 
budget priorities. 
(8) There are numerous vaccines presently in 
the development pipeline for disease prevention and 
treatment, and it is critical that the Nation develop 
longer term and more specific safety monitoring 
mechanisms. 
(9) It is critical that the Federal Government 
revamp vaccine-safety monitoring programs to focus 
increasingly on developing prevaccination screening 
tools to prevent injury, thereby raising public con-
fidence and reducing vaccine injuries. 
(10) The current structure for monitoring for 
vaccine safety, postlicensure, primarily focuses on 
epidemiology. There is inadequate funding directed 
toward independent research, including research di-
rected at understanding underlying biological mecha-
nisms and biological susceptibilities and designed to 
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