Authorizing legislation--Public Health Service Act, Sec. 2110-23 and 31-34.

The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 amended the Public Health Service Act to establish the National Vaccine Improvement Program to provide compensation for vaccine-related injury or death. The Act requires the service of petitions upon the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and filing with the appropriate United States Claims Court to initiate compensation claims proceedings, which must be completed within 365 days of the service/filing date. The Secretary of HHS is the respondent in compensation claims proceedings.

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has been delegated the authority to administer Parts A and D of Subtitle 2. Consistent with this delegation, HRSA will:

- receive petitions for compensation served on the Secretary;

- arrange for medical review of each petition and supporting documentation by physicians with special expertise in pediatrics and neurology and develop recommendations regarding the petitions for compensation;

- develop medical/legal defense of DHHS position on compensation in the U.S. Claims Court;

publish notice of each petition received in the Federal Register; promulgate regulations to modify the Vaccine Injury Table;

- provide administrative support to the Advisory Commission on Childhood

Vaccines, composed of 13 members including health professionals, attorneys, legal representatives of children who have suffered a vaccine-related injury or death, and PHS Agency heads; and

compile data for submission to the Congress on the number of compensation awards for various periods following implementation of the program.

Health Professions

HRS

183

Rationale for the Budget Request

The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program is financed through the
Vaccine Compensation Trust Fund authorized by the Congress for the payment of
claims to injured individuals. The costs of program operations incurred by the
U.S. Court of Claims and the PHS are also paid out of the trust fund.

The FY 1991 request is for budget authority in the trust fund of $221,500,000:

HRSA is responsible for the disbursement of claims payments from the trust fund as well as other administrative tasks described above.

THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 1990.

CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL

DISEASE CONTROL, RESEARCH, AND TRAINING

WITNESSES

DR. WILLIAM L. ROPER, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL CLAUDE F. PICKELSIMER, JR., DIRECTOR, FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT OFFICE, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL

DENNIS P. WILLIAMS, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY BUDGET, OFFICE OF SECRETARY, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Mr. NATCHER. At this time we take up the budget request for the Centers for Disease Control, and we have before the committee, Dr. William Roper.

Dr. Roper, it is a pleasure to have you before our committee, and before you give us your statement, tell us who you have with you there at the table.

Dr. ROPER. Yes, sir. Thank you.

With me is Mr. Dennis Williams, who is Deputy Assistant Secretary for Budget at the Department of Health and Human Services, and Claude Pickelsimer, who is Director of Office of the Financial Management in CDC.

Mr. NATCHER. We are delighted to have all of you before the committee and we will be pleased to hear from you, Dr. Roper.

OPENING STATEMENT

Dr. ROPER. Thank you, sir.

It is indeed a delight to be back before you, Mr. Natcher, and to talk with you about CDC. The opportunity to appear before you at the beginning of a new decade is indeed a special pleasure.

I believe the 1990s will be an exciting time for public health. We have many opportunities, many challenges that are open before us. The principal road map we have to meet those challenges are the national health objectives for the year 2000 that have just been set, and CDC is one of the principal architects of those objectives, and we are looking forward to working to meet those.

We believe that we have got to be increasingly creative as we try to meet the challenges that lie before us in the 1990s, we must focus not only on preventing disease and death and injury, but enhancing health and the quality of life for all Americans.

Public health faces serious challenges in the 1990s, and I would like to take a few minutes with several of these.

In the area of infectious diseases, we have diagnostic tests, and antimicrobial agents, including some new antiviral drugs, and we also have some new vaccines, but in some cases, such as influenza. organisms continue to change, presenting new challenges, and