Republican Rep.-elect Mark Green alleged Tuesday that vaccines may cause autism, rejecting data from the Centers for Disease Control maintaining that a relationship between the two does not exist.

"[T]here is some concern that the rise in autism is the result of the preservatives that are in our vaccines," Green said at a town hall Tuesday night in Tennessee, the Nashville Tennessean reported. He added that he would push the CDC to release data on vaccines linking to autism.

The CDC has "fraudulently managed" the data between vaccines and autism, the incoming Tennessee congressman also charged, according to the Tennessean.

"As a physician, I can make that argument and I can look at it academically and make the argument against the CDC, if they really want to engage me on it," Green said.