A Gannett story running in The Tennessean today, Hastert, Frist said to rig bill for drug firms, quotes both Republican and Democratic Representatives and Senators who are sharply critical of a PIRG-opposed stealth power play by Senate Majority Leader Frist (R-TN) and House Speaker Hastert (R-IL) to gain sweeping lawsuit immunity for vaccines and other drugs used in pandemics. In late December, the provision was added without debate and without consent of conferees (and according to the story, possibly through deception of conferees) to a defense spending bill that has become law (our previous blog here). From The Tennessean:

About 10 or 10:30 p.m., Democratic staff members were handed the language and told it was now in the bill, [David] Obey [D-WIS] said. He took to the House floor in a rage. He called Frist and Hastert "a couple of musclemen in Congress who think they have a right to tell everybody else that they have to do their bidding." Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., also was critical of inserting the vaccine language after the conference committee had adjourned. "It sucks," he told Congress Daily that night.