New US security bill 'pays back the donors'

Makers of leaky gas masks and potentially dangerous vaccines were shielded from the threat of a lawsuit yesterday in clauses tucked away in a sweeping package of legislation on homeland security.

Seven provisions - which crept into the bill after the Republican victories in the mid-term elections - were widely condemned for pandering to major donors to the party, especially the drug industry.

Parents' groups fear that the measures could damage dozens of pending lawsuits which argue that mercury-based preservatives in childhood vaccines cause autism.

"If there is a terrorist attack, you can't blame the company that makes the technology to prevent terrorist attacks. That could apply to people who make gas masks, or the manufacturer who made the baggage screening device if a bomb gets on the plane," said Vikki Kratz, of the centre for responsive politics. "Basically, nobody gets blamed for anything."

The Bush administration says that the legal cover is necessary to encourage drug companies to develop antidotes to smallpox and other killers without fear of expensive litigation.

But critics believe the Republicans sought to unfairly exploit their strong showing at the mid-term elections to pad out the homeland security bill. The Democrats suspended their efforts to block the bill, which will lead to the biggest reorganisation of US government in half a century.

They did attempt to scrap the extra provisions yesterday, but managed only to win a promise of a review early next year.

"In the dead of the night, the Republicans rewarded one of their biggest campaign contributors - the pharmaceutical companies - by adding a provision to the homeland security bill that has nothing to do with homeland security," said Barbara Boxer, a Democratic senator from California.