Dan Burton

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word. I am not going to take much time. I am very concerned about the fiscal responsibility that we should have. And I know my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have spent a lot of time defending the $300,000 per trip that the Speaker is going to be spending flying back and forth to California. But I don't think the American people are going to understand how $15 million a year is being spent for one person to fly back and forth to California. The Speaker is a very important person. She is third in line to the presidency, but there are other ways to get out there that cost less. I think the plane the former Speaker used would cost about one-fifth or one-fourth of that. And I don't think, no matter what the other side says, that the American people are going to buy $1.2 million a trip for her to go to California or $15 million a year for her to go back and forth to her district. It just won't wash, especially at a time like this when we are trying to get spending under control. Mr. Chairman, I will be happy to yield to my friend from Arizona.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to another great Colts fan, Congressman Mike Pence. (Mr. PENCE asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to yield 3 minutes to another Colts fan who is a friend of Peyton Manning from Tennessee, the great Congressman from that State (Zach Wamp).

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, might I inquire of my colleague, do you have any more speakers?

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Well, if he has no more speakers, I am prepared to yield back the balance of my time. But I just want to say to my colleagues from Illinois, and I say this in a good-natured way, if you need a Colts hat, I just happen to have a few in my office. I will be very happy to buy you one. But I still want my deep-dish pizza, my cheesecake, and I want to make sure those DVDs get to the troops in Iraq. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, it sure is nice to hear the gentleman from Illinois extol the virtues of the Indianapolis Colts. I really appreciate that, Danny. I am very happy to yield to my colleague from Indiana, another great Colts fan, Congressman Steve Buyer, 2 minutes.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. You know, there are a lot of reasons to thank Tony Dungy and Peyton Manning and the whole team for the great victory they had last Sunday. I sat in the rain for about 5 hours and watched them, and I didn't feel a drop of rain because they did such a great job. I might have felt a drop of rain in the first part when Devin Hester ran 92 yards for the opening kickoff touchdown. It kind of scared everybody to death who were Colts fans, but we all had faith in Peyton Manning and the Colts, and we knew that they wouldn't give up, especially after watching them coming back from the biggest deficit in championship history to defeat New England 2 weeks before. But the reason I want to thank them today is for my Illinois colleagues. I want Coach Dungy and Peyton Manning and the whole team to know, from my colleagues in Illinois, I want a deep-dish pizza, a pound of cheese cake and a bunch of DVDs for our troops over in Iraq. So I want to thank them very much for making sure I didn't have to pay for all that other stuff, but my colleague on the other side of the aisle does. Let me be serious for just a moment. We are very, very thrilled to have a Super Bowl champion in Indianapolis, we waited for a long, long time. And it came at a time when we had some of the finest people that have ever been on a football team playing in Indianapolis. It came at a time when we had one of the finest coaches who ever coached football in Indianapolis. And not only is Tony Dungy a great coach, but he is a great American and a very patriotic man and a good Christian fellow. And everybody in Indianapolis really respects him. Peyton Manning has been a gentleman on and off the field. The whole team has. I can name everybody on the team. And I just want to say, on behalf of the Congress, me and Julia Carson, my colleague who represents Indianapolis, and Steve Buyer and others, that we are very, very proud of the Colts. We hope they bring us another Super Bowl next year, but even if they don't, we are very, very thrilled. They have done Indianapolis proud, and we are very proud to talk about them here today. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. We are very sorry to hear about Benny Parsons losing his life and his battle with lung cancer. He was a great race car driver, known to his friends as BP. He spent his early years in North Carolina, where he began his career in sports playing high school football. Shortly after high school, his family moved to Detroit where his father ran a taxicab company. He helped his father and drove cabs and also worked at a local gas station. In a town known as Motor City, Benny's interest and experience in automobiles and racing thrived. He quickly became a real huge race fan. As the story goes, he lucked out when a truck towing a race car pulled into the station for a fill-up, and after talking with the truck driver, he was invited to join him on his way to nearby Mount Clemens Speedway. Once they arrived at the track, the race car driver who was supposed to drive the car did not show up, and so BP offered to drive the car, and that was his first race. It is hard to believe that somebody would go from a gas station to a race car and get in it right away. I am from Indianapolis, Indiana. The Indianapolis 500 is driven there, and I cannot imagine anybody without any past experience getting into a race car and driving it and doing well, but BP did. In 1964, Benny Parsons drove in his first official NASCAR race. Only a year later, he received the Rookie of the Year award from the Auto Racing Club of America, in one year. He would go on to win the ARCA championship in both 1968 and 1969. He had an impressive record in racing during 1971 and 1972, and his points earned him the NASCAR championship in 1973. He also won the Daytona 500 in 1975 and the 1980 World 600 championship at Charlotte, and he continued on to win the National Speedway USA, the Texas World Speedway and his career final victory at the Coca-Cola 500 in Atlanta, Georgia. Overall, he had 283 top-10 finishes and won 21 major races. After he finished his last race in 1988, he switched gears from driving to commentating. He started out reporting from the pits during his final years of racing but began full time for both ESPN and TBS in 1988. His firsthand knowledge of the sport captivated his audiences. He could talk from the prospective of both a fan and a driver, and was skilled at sharing his insights through his broadcasts. As the NASCAR industry grew more popular and was televised more frequently, he commentated for both NBC and TNT. Parsons received an ACE award in 1989 and an ESPN Emmy award in 1986. His talent as an announcer earned him the new nickname, The Professor. It is a long way from race car driver to professor, but he earned it. When he spoke, audiences listened and learned from him. In the summer of 2006, Parsons began to have trouble breathing. His doctors diagnosed him with lung cancer, even though he had quit smoking over 25 years ago. After a successful treatment, he noticed more trouble breathing. Doctors found that his left lung had not fully recovered from the radiation. This past December, he reentered the hospital for treatment and passed away on January 16 of this year from complications from lung cancer. His career encompassed four decades of racing, followed by nearly two decades of announcing. Among other awards, he was inducted into the International Motor Sports Hall of Fame in 1994, the Court of Legends at Lowe's Motor Speedway in 1994, and the Motor Sports Hall of Fame of America in 2005. In 1998, he was named one of NASCAR's 50 greatest drivers. Benny Parsons, known for his lovable personality and his positive attitude, will be greatly missed by all of those in the NASCAR community and family. Mr. Speaker, I ask all Members to join me by supporting this resolution. We have a NASCAR race, the Brickyard 400, in Indianapolis, and we are going to miss Benny Parsons there. We wish his family well. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, we have one more speaker who is not yet here, but since he is not here, we would like to have permission to have his remarks put in the Record. Mr. Speaker, we yield back the balance of our time.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. I would just ask my colleague from Illinois, isn't every day the day for Indiana?

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, may I reclaim my time? Mr. Hayes just arrived.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Hayes).

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I would like to respond to my colleagues who have just spoken here on the floor, but today I am here on some happy news, so I will confine my remarks to what I consider to be a real celebratory event. Sunday, the day before yesterday, I sat in the rain with 75,000 other Americans cheering the Indianapolis Colts to victory in the Super Bowl, and I want to tell you that it was one of the greatest football games that I have ever seen. We were very much in favor of the Colts, as you might imagine, and when the kickoff came to the Bears, and Devin Hester ran 92 years for a touchdown, everybody's heart went down to their feet because we thought it was going to be a real letdown for us. But Peyton Manning and the Colts came roaring back and won a very convincing victory in the Super Bowl. And after that they had a parade in downtown Indianapolis for the Colts in 8-degree weather. Can you imagine people going out in 8-degree weather to be in a parade? I can't. But the streets were filled by Hoosiers who were celebrating the victory and giving tremendous accolades to the Colts and the coach and Manning and everybody else that made this victory possible. I would like to just make a couple of comments on what happened. The Colts gained 430 yards in that game against the third strongest defense in the National Football League. Peyton Manning completed 25 of 38 passes for 247 yards and was named the Most Valuable Player. Running back Dominic Rhodes ran for 113 yards against that Bears defense, in driving rain, I might add. Running back Joseph Addai received 10 passes for 66 yards and ran the ball for 77 more yards in that driving rain. And the Colts did a tremendous job on defense. Kelvin Hayden intercepted one of the Chicago quarterback's passes and ran it back 56 yards for a Colts touchdown, and the Colts scored in every single quarter in all four playoff games for the first time in playoff history. So I would just like to congratulate Tony Dungy, the coach of the Colts, one of the most popular people in football and especially in Indianapolis; and we think he is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet. He is only the third person in football history to win a Super Bowl both as a coach and a player. I want to congratulate my friend Bill Polian, the president of the Indianapolis Colts, who put this team together over the past several years and did an outstanding job. Bill, we are very proud of you. And I want to congratulate the CEO and owner of the Colts, Jim Irsay, who took control of the team in 1997 and dedicated himself to making us a Super Bowl champion. It was a great day for Indianapolis. We are very, very proud of the Colts. On behalf of all Hoosiers, we want to say to the Indianapolis Colts, you are the world champions, and we are very proud of each and every one of you. One more thing I want to mention. The Colts defense was maligned throughout the season. Later in the season, they said the Colts defense was one of the worst in football. In the playoff games, they took on everybody and held them to very, very low yardage. So congratulations to the Colts defense as well as our offense. You did a great job.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Madam Speaker, I am very happy at this time to recognize another great American and a great Indianapolis Colts friend from Indianapolis, Mr. Mike Pence, for 3 minutes.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Madam Speaker, we have no further speakers.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Before I yield time to my good friend from Illinois, another Bears fan who played football without a helmet, I just would like to say to Congressman Rush, I want lots of pepperoni on the pizza you are going to buy me Sunday. I recognize the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Kirk) for 3 minutes.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. You know, this is really a great Super Bowl we are facing for a number of reasons, not the least of which for the first time we have two African American coaches who are going to be coaching the football teams in the Super Bowl. There has never been an African American coach reach the Super Bowl, and now we have two, both teams. They are two of the finest men you are ever going to want to see coaching football teams, let alone teams in the Super Bowl. Tony Dungy, in his fifth season with the Colts, has compiled a record of 68-20. He has had five playoff appearances, he has had four AFC South titles, two AFC championship games, and finally an AFC championship. He has just done an outstanding job. And Lovie Smith has done an outstanding job with the Chicago Bears. With a team racked by injuries, his first season he went 5-11. Then they went 11-5 and made the playoffs before falling to the Carolina Panthers. And then this year they made the Super Bowl for the first time since Mike Ditka led the Bears back in 1986. They are both very fine men. They are not just a credit to the African American race, but they are a credit to humanity. I have watched both of them on television. They are both very strong Christian men, they are both very patriotic men, and they are loved by their teams. I have not been conversant with how the people in Chicago feel about Lovie Smith, but everybody in Indianapolis thinks that Tony Dungy walks on water; they think he is the greatest coach we have ever had. And he is the kind of guy that, even when he is behind, doesn't know the meaning of giving up. I mean, this last playoff game when they came from behind from a greater deficit than any playoff championship team in history was really something. I admitted, when we were talking about the game the other night on the floor, that in the first half I was so upset I almost changed to American Movie Classics. We were behind 21-3. And I changed over the channel for a minute and I thought, no, I can't give up on the Colts; they won't give up. I changed the channel back, and dag-gone they came from that deficit to win the game. It was an outstanding championship effort. And it was led by an African American, Tony Dungy, who was the coach. Lovie Smith did an outstanding job with the Bears. He led them through a very difficult last few seasons and led them to the championship. They were both talking about being the first African American in the Super Bowl, and now they are both at the same time. So I think that really shows what kind of men they are. The only difference I would have with my colleague on the other side of the aisle who has a great resonant voice, Mr. Davis, is that I am one of the few guys here on the floor today who is going to be rooting for the Indianapolis Colts. Now, we may be outnumbered here tonight. My colleagues are going to be speaking, and most of them are going to be talking about Lovie Smith and the Bears, you will outnumber us, but on Sunday you won't because the Colts are going all the way. As I said the other night, I am blue through and through and I am rooting for the Colts and they are going to win, but I still love the Bears and Lovie Smith, and I am very sorry that they won't win, but he is still a great coach. With that, Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Before I yield 3 minutes to my good friend from Texas, a former judge, before I recognize him, I just want to say that I have wagered some Indiana popcorn for a deep dish pizza and some kind of cake, and anybody that wants to bet on the Bears, call me up, I've got plenty of popcorn. With that, I yield 3 minutes to my good friend from Texas (Mr. Gohmert).

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, yesterday was a great day for the State of Indiana and the city of Indianapolis. For a long, long time, the Indianapolis Colts, our football team, has been trying to make it to the Super Bowl; but they have come just a little bit short the last 3 or 4 years. As a matter of fact, many people were saying that they didn't have what it takes to make it to the Super Bowl. Yesterday, the Indianapolis Colts were down 21-3 at the half, and many Hoosiers who were watching the football game and people across the country were so dismayed because they thought once again we weren't going to make it. But Peyton Manning, the quarterback for the Colts; and Joseph Addai; Tony Dungy, the coach of the team; Bill Polian, who put this thing together as president of the club; and the whole team did an outstanding job and came back and made the greatest comeback in the history of championship playoff games to win the game by 4 points right at the end. I just have to tell you that it was the most exciting game that I have ever seen, and I want to congratulate the Colts on behalf of the Congress and behalf of the people of the State of Indiana for doing such an outstanding job. One other thing I would like to comment on is the defense of the Colts has been maligned over the past four, five or six games of the season, and yet when it came to the playoffs, they rose to the occasion and did an outstanding job. Defenses don't usually get the accolades they deserve when they perform well, but I want to say to the Colts' defense, you guys did one heck of a job, and you proved your mettle, and I hope in the next 2 weeks you will get yourselves all up for this big game for the championship in Miami. Everybody in Indiana is rooting for you. You did a great job in the playoffs. Peyton, take them to victory in the Super Bowl. We are rooting for you.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. My first wife died about 5 years ago of breast cancer. And when she was going through her chemotherapy, we were sitting in a room with about five women that were getting their chemotherapy. And there was this one lady who was kind of complaining and actually had a few tears in her eyes, and she said that she had to pay $350 a month for Tamoxifen, which was the drug of choice. And a lady about three seats away from her said, Well, I get mine from Canada for $50. And I thought, my gosh, that doesn't sound right. So we checked into it, and we found that the price of Tamoxifen was seven times higher here in the United States than it was in Canada. And I thought, well, that just doesn't seem right. So I started checking into a lot of other pharmaceutical products. Today Tamoxifen in Munich, Germany is $60, and it is $360 here in the United States. The point I am trying to make is the prices charged around the world are much less for the very same product, pharmaceutical product, than it is here in the United States. And Americans, I think, should get the same benefit as anybody else in the world. We are not second-class citizens. Now, we get to the negotiation problem, and I heard the White House say, well, we shouldn't negotiate, shouldn't interfere with the free enterprise system. I want you to know that we negotiate on just about everything right now. Let me just give you a few examples. We negotiate on some of the aircrafts that we buy. As my colleague just said, we negotiated on the Cipro not too long ago. We negotiated on all kinds of military equipment. And for us to say that we can't negotiate on pharmaceuticals is just crazy. When we passed the Medicare prescription drug in the dead of the night after 3 hours of keeping this machine open so they could drag up at least one vote for victory, we found out that it said in there that the government of the United States cannot, is prohibited, from negotiating with the pharmaceutical companies for prices. That means that they can set whatever price that they want and we have to pay it. There is no negotiation. And we hear from the White House and from others that we don't negotiate or shouldn't interfere in the private sector. We do it all the time. In fact, in the Veterans Administration they negotiate for drug prices right now. And many, many of the pharmaceutical products the people get in the military hospitals today are much, much less than they are buying through the Medicare system. All I can say is that there ought to be negotiation. I am a Republican. My Democrat colleagues are pushing this bill, but it should be a bipartisan bill. The people of the United States should get a fair price for their drugs, and we should be able to have the Government of the United States negotiate for the benefit of the taxpayers to get the best price for the products that we are selling to our consumers. H.R. 4 is a bipartisan bill aimed at cutting prescription drug prices for millions of seniors and individuals with disabilities. The current Medicare prescription drug law explicitly prohibits the Department of Health and Human Services from using the strength of Medicare's 43 million beneficiaries to negotiate prescription drug price discounts. Providing HHS with negotiating authority has bipartisan support in Congress and across America. In a recent poll, 92 percent of Americans stated they supported the proposal. The bill requires the HHS Secretary to conduct such negotiations with drug companies on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries but provides the Secretary broad discretion on how to best implement the negotiating authority and achieve the greatest price discounts for Medicare beneficiaries. The bill continues to prohibit the HHS Secretary from requiring a particular formulary (i.e., a list of covered drugs) to be used by Medicare prescription drug plans or limiting access to any prescription medication. The federal government is well equipped with the skills needed to negotiate price discounts. It is done when we purchase airplanes for the military, when we purchase furniture for government buildings--and it is done in the health arena for programs in the Public Health Service, VA, and Medicaid. We have seen that, even without establishing formularies, CMS can use its purchasing power to reduce costs. In times of dire need--Cipro for the anthrax attack on the Capitol in 2001 and with flu vaccines in 2004--CMS has been able to obtain lower prices. The bill also clarifies that Medicare Part D drug plans are permitted to obtain discounts or lower prices for covered prescription drugs below the price negotiated by the HHS Secretary. The purpose of this bill is to ensure that all avenues of achieving price discounts are being used to benefit the seniors and individuals with disabilities in the Medicare program. While recent projections do indicate that the Medicare Part D program is costing less than originally expected, cost projections alone are simply not a strong indicator of the program's success. In the real world seniors are still experiencing--complications, confusion and increasing premiums in 2007. Requiring Medicare to negotiate for lower prices may not save the federal government huge sums of money but it will help save seniors money by reducing premiums and out-of-pocket costs. Whether this bill saves the Federal government money is really a function of whether the Secretary uses his authority effectively. Congressional Budget Office (CBO) cost estimates are historically very cautious and CBO has indicated they will reexamine this estimated cost savings of this bill when they have more information from the 2006 plan year. Today's law bars the Secretary from negotiating with drug manufacturers solely because the drug industry insisted on the prohibition. We need to put the interests of America's seniors and people with disabilities ahead of the pharmaceutical and HMO industry. This bill has bipartisan support and we should move forward to improve this vitally needed drug program for seniors and people with disabilities.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, due to illness I was regrettably unable to be on the House floor for rollcall votes 529, 530, 531, 532, 533, 534, 535, 536, 537 and 538. Had I been present I would have voted ``aye'' for rollcall votes 529, 530, 531, 533, 534, 536, and 537; and ``no'' for rollcall vote 532.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, as a Member of this House who has long voiced concerns about the lack of concerted federal action to deal with the growing epidemic of autism in this country, I was very encouraged by yesterday's passage of the ``Combating Autism Act.'' Although I believe that we missed an opportunity in this bill to resolve the problem of mercury in vaccines and its connection to autism, there is no denying that the Combating Autism Act represents a long overdue and significant expansion of the federal government's response to the autism epidemic. The bill commits an unprecedented $945 million in federal funds over five years to combating autism through research, screening, better interventions and education efforts. But we should be under no illusion that the job is finished. Autism is a condition that has no known cure, which means that this is a crisis that is simply not going to ``go away.'' What we have done is realistically only a small down payment on the vast resources that we must invest in order to deal with this terrible scourge. For example, in my own State of Indiana we experienced a 923 percent cumulative growth rate for autism from 1992-2003. The annual growth rate of autism in Indiana averaged 27 percent compared to an average of 7 percent for the growth rate of all disabilities. And Indiana's experience is by no means unique. In fact, as a Nation we have gone from roughly 1 case of autism for every 10,000 births in the 1980's to 1 in every 166 today. What this means in practical terms is that we are now at the beginning of what can be considered a ``bubble'' of older children who have been diagnosed and treated for autism, who now must face the challenges of their disease in a post-secondary environment and beyond. The ``No Child Left Behind Act'' has given our schools the tools to do an excellent job of providing additional teachers, curriculum and individual educational programs for our students with autism. But this assistance is largely confined to the K-12 years and for the most part our schools are only just beginning to effectively meet the growing learning needs of that age group. We are therefore still woefully ill prepared for the unique problems our post-secondary young autistic adults will face as they transition from a relatively protected learning environment to the demands of our modern life. We must recognize the plight of these older children with autism and commit ourselves to providing the additional resources necessary to deal with their unique problems as we have done for younger children with autism. Recently, I was privileged to meet with officials from Taft Community College, located in Kern County, California. Taft, I am told is one of only two institutions throughout the country currently exploring ways to dealing with this impending crisis. I understand that for the last ten years Taft has pioneered a ``Transition to Independent Living Program'' (TIL) which provides a structured environment for post- secondary special needs students to successfully meet the demands of our modern world. According to the statistics compiled by Taft Community College President, Dr. Roe Darnell, the achievements of these students and graduates are truly remarkable. I understand that fully 81 percent of the program's graduates are employed and 94 percent live independently. When you consider that the national employment average for all classes of people with a disability is only 37 percent, these results are noteworthy. According to Dr. Darbell, other ``Snapshots of Success'' include: 93 percent of graduates receive no financial help; 90 percent of graduates use public transportation; 95 percent have a checking account; 80 percent have a savings account. The Taft Community College curriculum teaches life skills and independent living strategies to its students, with TIL students receiving vocational training, ethics training and assistance in developing sound work habits. A moderately size dormitory in the middle of campus is utilized by Taft Community College as a ``laboratory'' to practice life skills, and Taft officials believe that one of the keys to the success of their TIL program is its emphasis on residential living. Now I understand that the Taft program handles high functioning adults with autism, which means that the techniques and skills taught to these students may not be completely applicable to young adults, who are more severely autistic, but the pioneering efforts and achievements of President Darnell, his teachers, students and TIL program graduates should be applauded. Programs like those at Taft will not solve the whole problem of how to deal with the impending boom of autistic adults, but I think it is certainly possible that they are a part of the solution. I sincerely hope that many of the approximately 2,000 community colleges around the country will also begin to recognize the growing educational needs of this underserved population and explore the idea of adopting programs like Taft's TIL, if appropriate, and if not, push the boundaries of what is possible for these victims of autism.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. I cannot imagine anybody denying the Holocaust. Anyone who has been to Israel and seen the Holocaust Museum or been to the Holocaust Museum here could have no doubt about the tragic events that took place by Nazi Germany in World War II. But what I would like to talk about in addition to that right now is some of the things that are going on right now that bother me a great deal, that parallel this. In August of 1939 Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov stunned the world by signing the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact under the watchful eyes of German Foreign Minister Von Ribbentrop and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. They signed that nonaggression pact and what it guaranteed was that there would not be a war on two fronts. That was what Hitler wanted. And then Lord Chamberlain went to Munich and signed an agreement saying he would give away the Sudetenland in exchange for peace, and what happened was we had a war that killed 62 million people. Sixty-two million people. We are now in the Nuclear Age, and this leader in Iran who is denying that the Holocaust did not occur is hell-bent for leather to create another holocaust which, in my opinion, could kill hundreds of millions of people, not 62 million but hundreds of millions of people, by using nuclear weapons. And it is of great concern to me the things that he has been saying. Ayatollah Khomeini referred to the United States when he was alive as the ``Great Satan.'' The current leader and strongman, Ayatollah Khameneh'i, has ruled out any possible kind of relationship with the United States, calling us the ``Great Satan.'' And on October 26, 2005, addressing a conference in Tehran entitled ``The World Without Zionism,'' Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran, said Israel must be wiped off the map, described Israel as a ``disgraceful blot on the face of the Islamic world'' and declared that ``anybody,'' including the United States, ``who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic national fury.'' He went on to say, ``To those who doubt, to those who ask is it possible, or those who do not believe, I say accomplishment of a world without America and Israel is both possible and feasible.'' And then, quoting the Ayatollah Khomeini, he said, ``Israel must be wiped off'' the face of the Earth, ``from the map of the world, and with the help of the Almighty, we shall soon experience a world without America or Zionism, notwithstanding those who doubt.'' Now, today the Baker-Hamilton Commission indicated that we must start talking to Iran and others in the region. I have never been against talking, but it is distressful to me at a time when they are hell-bent to develop a nuclear program, a nuclear weapons program, and the whole world cannot stop them from doing it, that there should be dialogue with them. It is analogous to saying to Adolph Hitler, after he invaded Poland, ``We want to deal with you.'' They tried that. Stalin tried it. Chamberlain tried it. And 62 million people died. What we need to do right now is do whatever it takes to make sure there is not another holocaust. Whatever it takes. And that means making absolutely sure that people who are hell-bent to destroy Israel and the United States and Europe, if they don't agree with their religious beliefs, that they are stopped from developing nuclear weapons. We must not let them develop nuclear weapons. This resolution deals with the Holocaust that did occur, and what I am talking about is a holocaust that we do not want to occur. And the best way to make sure that does not happen is to make sure that the President of Iran and the ayatollahs over there do not get nuclear weaponry.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, at the end of every election cycle, we say goodbye to a lot of our friends and hello to new Members of the Congress. Tonight, since we are right near the end of our session, our special session, I thought I would take just a moment to say goodbye to some of my friends, whom I am not going to see again, unless they invite me to their House for a steak dinner when I get in their region. A lot of the Members of the Republican Study Committee, which Sam Johnson, John Doolittle and Ernie Istook and I founded about 10 years ago, were defeated in this elect. We have some new Members, but a lot of them were defeated. I want to say to them you have done a great job for your country and all of you we are going to miss. I can't name all of you, but you know who you are. I also want to say a fond farewell to some of my colleagues from Indiana who I think fought the good fight and I think did a good job for our Hoosier State, but won't be with us again. Mike Sodrel, who has a great southern Indiana accent, I loved to rib him when he was on the radio. Mike, we are going to miss you. He was very active on Agriculture Committee, the Science Committee, Small Business and Transportation. I don't know how he did all of that. That must be one of the reasons he wasn't able to win the reelection. He probably worked too hard up here. Then, of course, Chris Chocola, who was on the Budget and also Ways and Means. Chris was also from the northern part of Indiana. He did a great job for our State. We will miss Chris as well. John Hostetler, who came from what we call the bloody Eighth of Indiana. He carried the Republican mantle of leadership in that district for a very, very long time. He did a great job, but unfortunately this time the bloody Eighth got to him. John, we are going to miss you as well. Ernie Istook, who as I said before was one of the founders of the Republican Study Group, we called it CAT, Conservative Action Team. Ernie ran for Governor and got hit with the tide. So, Ernie, he didn't make the governorship. We are going to lose him as a Member of Congress. Ernie, we are going to miss you as well. You did a great job with the Republican Study Committee. Then I want to say goodbye to some of my buddies from the 98th Congress. There is only one of us left, the last man standing, Sherry. There were 24 of us that were elected back in 1982 and 1983. Sherry Boehlert, Nancy Johnson and Mike Bilirakis were the last four. John McCain was the other four, but he went over to that other body where the air is a little bit rarefied. John and I will be the only two left. But Sherry, we are going miss you. I know you are going to go home and really enjoy being with your wife and family and not having to run every time you hear a bell ring. You will probably hear the phone ring and go nuts. Nancy Johnson, you have been a great friend. I will certainly miss you as well. Mike Bilirakis, fortunately Mike's son has joined us from his district. We are going to miss Mike as well. I had some great debates with Mike about Cyprus. Mike, I am going to miss you on those debates. Maybe your son will take up the mantle, and we will have those debates just like you and I have. Anyhow, goodbye to my old friends, the Republican Study Committee members. We will miss you. Hopefully you will come back and see us when you get a chance. As I said before, if I get in your neck of the woods, especially you, Sherry, I will stop by for dinner.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Combating Autism Act of 2006--S. 843--as amended. I want to thank Chairman Nathan Deal and Chairman Joe Barton, and the Energy and Commerce Committee staff, for bringing this bill to the floor today. Over the last 5 years or more, many of you have heard me speak many times on this floor about the subject of autism and you will likely continue to hear me speak on this issue because I believe we truly have our work cut out for us. About 20 years ago, autism was considered a rare disease, affecting about 1 in 10,000 children. Now, that rate is about 1 in 166; making autism the third most common developmental disability that children face, even more prevalent than things such as Down's syndrome and other childhood cancers. In my own home State of Indiana we experienced a 923 percent cumulative growth rate for autism from 1992 to 2003. The annual growth rate of autism in Indiana averaged 27 percent compared to an average of 7 percent for the growth rate of all disabilities. This literal epidemic of autism is a looming and immediate economic crisis to our education system, our health care systems, our long-term housing and care system for the disabled, and most especially, to an ever-increasing number of families across the country. Autism is a condition that has no known cure, which means that this is a crisis that is simply not going to ``go away.'' Today we take a huge step forward in terms of dealing with this problem. Although in my opinion, only a down payment on the resources that we must invest in order to defeat this terrible scourge, the Combating Autism Act, commits nearly $1 billion--in essence almost a doubling of funding for autism--to autism research, including essential research on environmental factors, treatments, early identification and support services. This bill amounts to a long overdue and vitally needed declaration of war by the Congress of the United States on autism. Even so, while a needed step forward, this is not a perfect bill, because I believe we are missing a crucial opportunity to use this bill to help unravel the mystery of autism. Specifically, while the bill before us does include language on the need to research the environmental factors which may contribute to autism, it does not include a specific mandate that environmental research topics must include vaccines, other biologics, and their preservatives. Now I am not against vaccinations, but I do believe, as do many of my colleagues, that there is a strong link between the mercury contained in a product called thimerosal--commonly used as a vaccine preservative--and children developing neurological disorders such as autism. In fact, my own grandson became autistic after receiving nine shots in 1 day, seven of which contained thimerosal. Because of what happened to my grandson, I took it upon myself to learn about autism and what I discovered during my research was deeply disturbing. During my tenure as chairman of the Government Reform Committee, 1997-2002, and as chairman of the Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness, 2003-2005, a number of very credible national and international scientists testified at a series of hearings that the mercury in vaccines is a contributing factor to developing neurological disorders, including, but not limited to, modest declines in intelligence quotient, IQ, autism, and Alzheimer's disease. And the body of evidence to support that conclusion gets larger every day. Yet we continue to hear repeatedly in congressional hearings, in media communications, and through government and scientific reports that ``there is no evidence that proves a connection between vaccines and autism.'' This conclusion is not too surprising when you consider that our health agencies seem to routinely dismiss out of hand any scientific study that does conclude thimerosal is a danger. Experience tells us that, as with any other epidemic, while there may be underlying genetic susceptibilities, there usually is some type of environmental trigger as well, such as a virus, fungus, heavy metals, pollutants, or whatever. There has never, to the best of my knowledge, been a purely genetic epidemic. So, genetics alone cannot explain how we went from 1 in 10,000 children with autism spectrum disorders 20 years ago to 1 in 166 today. Considering that mercury is a base element and the most toxic substance known to science outside of radioactive materials, it is biologically plausible that mercury is an environmental trigger of autism. Recent studies indicate that more than half of pediatricians said that in the previous year they had encountered at least one family that refused all vaccines, while 85 percent said they'd had a parent turn down at least one shot. Whether it's because of fear that mercury used as a preservative in childhood vaccines causes autism, or that the dangers of immunizations far outweigh their benefits, or that there is a conspiracy by drug companies, doctors and vaccine makers to conceal the harm, the facts are clear, more and more American families are fighting immunization. It is imperative that we do all we can to restore the public's trust in vaccinations. And the only way we are going to resolve the conflict of opinion over thimerosal is through more research. Unfortunately, if the Department of Health and Human Services never funds or conducts the right studies, and given their current track record on the subject, that is very likely what will happen, this question will forever remain unanswered. That will be a national tragedy because often once an environmental cause is discovered, immediate steps can be taken to prevent new cases and abate the epidemic. In addition, knowledge of the environmental cause or triggers often leads directly to more effective treatments. For example, this bill promotes the use of evidence-based interventions for those at higher risk for autism. However, so long as we ignore the potential danger of mercury, many biomedical interventions, such as restricted diet, applied kinesiology and/or chelation therapy--which many families have found to be the best treatments for their children with autism--will be excluded from the list of evidence-based treatments. I stand here today not just as a concerned grandfather of an autistic child but as the voice for the hundreds of parents and families who continue to contact my office looking for help for their children. They are our constituents, we represent them in the People's House, and I hope we are all listening to them. The debate about mercury in vaccines must be addressed, investigated and resolved. Parents have a right to know what happened to their children regardless of where the truth lies. And we have a responsibility to those children and families already suffering. In the meantime, we should err on the side of caution and remove thimerosal, even trace amounts, from all vaccinations. By failing to provide a clear congressional mandate to research all of the potential environmental causes of autism spectrum disorders, ASD, including vaccines and their preservatives, I believe we are handicapping our efforts to give all ASD patients the best possible quality of life and the ability to make the greatest possible contributions to society. I hope that in the coming weeks, months and years this Congress will push for further research into the question of thimerosal and autism so that one day we will be able to say that we have done everything possible to stop and treat this epidemic. In the meantime, I urge my colleagues to support this very good bill.