When preparing a law that will protect big business from the nuisance of accountability, it’s sometimes necessary to seek an expert’s advice. According to the advocacy group Public Citizen, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist found the ideal experts when preparing a bill shielding vaccine makers from lawsuits: industry officials themselves.

In a recent study, Public Citizen includes e-mails and letters showing Frist’s requests for input from the Biotechnology Industry Organization, a lobby group. Frist worked with BIO on draft legislation stipulating, at BIO’s request, that legislation wouldn’t be an option unless a maker clearly demonstrated “willful misconduct.” BIO also pushed to have jury trials blocked because “juries are likely to find ways to award damages.”

Once BIO okayed the language, Frist, along with House Speaker Dennis Hastert, secretly amended a December defence spending bill to include the vaccine liability stipulations.

Frist’s office has dismissed the report, saying Public Citizen’s board is made up of too many liberals and trial lawyers who “oppose these provisions because it will strip them of the ability to line their pockets.”

» Scott Saxon