Maloney has promoted scientifically-discredited claims of a link between vaccines and autism. Maloney has on a number of occasions introduced legislation that would direct the federal government to conduct studies into the alleged links between autism and vaccine. In a 2012 congressional hearing, Maloney equated concerns over a link between autism and vaccines to concerns over a link between smoking and cancer. She said, that it was "common sense that was bad for your health... The same thing seems to be here with the vaccinations."