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THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 2000

                          House of Representatives,
                            Committee on Government Reform,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:37 a.m., in 
room 2154, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Dan Burton 
(chairman of the committee) presiding.
    Present: Representatives Burton, Morella, Ros-Lehtinen, 
McHugh, Horn, LaTourette, Hutchinson, Terry, Biggert, Ose, 
Chenoweth-Hage, Waxman, Norton, Kucinich, Tierney, and Turner.
    Staff present: Kevin Binger, staff director; Daniel R. 
Moll, deputy staff director; David A. Kass, deputy counsel and 
parliamentarian; Mark Corallo, director of communications; S. 
Elizabeth Clay, Nicole Petrosino, and Nat Weinecke, 
professional staff members; Robert Briggs, deputy chief clerk; 
Robin Butler, office manager; Michael Canty, legislative aide; 
Scott Fagan and John Sare staff assistants; Toni Lightle, 
legislative assistant; Leneale Scott, computer systems manager; 
Lisa Smith Arafune, chief clerk; Corinne Zaccagnini, systems 
administrator; Phil Schiliro, minority staff director; Sarah 
Despres, minority counsel; Ellen Rayner, minority chief clerk; 
Teresa Coufal, minority staff assistant; Jean Gosa and Earley 
Green, minority assistant clerks; and Andrew Su, minority 
research assistant.
    Mr. Burton. If I could have your attention, please. I know 
a lot of people have cameras, and I hate to throw a wet blanket 
on those of you who want to take some pictures, but unless you 
are a member of the media, I wish you would not take any 
pictures during the hearing. We will try to get the people you 
want to take pictures of together later; but please do not take 
a bunch of pictures during the meeting because it will probably 
disrupt what we are trying to accomplish.
    Good morning. A quorum being present, the Committee on 
Government Reform will come to order.
    I ask unanimous consent that all Members' and witnesses 
opening statements be included in the record. Without 
objection, so ordered.
    I also ask unanimous consent that all articles, exhibits, 
and extraneous or tabular material referred to be included in 
the record. Without objection, so ordered.
    We do have some Members who have opening statements, and we 
will allow those, and if they do not choose to give an opening 
statement and want to prepare one for the record, that will be 
fine as well.
    This morning we are here to talk about autism. As we 
learned in our August hearing, the rates of autism have 
escalated dramatically in the last few years. What used to be 
considered a rare disorder has become a near epidemic. We have 
received hundreds of letters from parents across the country. 
In fact, here are some notebooks, and each one of the pages 
represents a parent who has a problem with a child with autism.
    They have shared with us their pain and their challenges. 
My staff tells me that some of them cried when they read some 
of these letters--and I have a pretty hard-nosed staff.
    I do not have to read a letter to experience the kind of 
heartbreak that is in these letters. I see it in my own family. 
I am very proud of this picture. The one on the left is my 
grand-daughter, who almost died after receiving a hepatitis B 
shot. Within a short period of time, she quit breathing, and 
they had to rush her to the hospital.
    My grandson, Christian, whom you see there with his head on 
her shoulder, according to the doctors was going to be about 6-
foot-10--we anticipated having him support the family by being 
an NBA star--but unfortunately, after receiving nine shots in 1 
day, the MMR and the DTaP shot and the hepatitis B, within a 
very short period of time, he quit speaking, ran around banging 
his head against the wall, screaming, hollering, waving his 
hands, and became a totally different child. We found out that 
he was autistic.
    He was born healthy. He was beautiful and tall. He was 
outgoing and talkative. He enjoyed company and going places. 
Then, he had those shots, and our lives and his life changed.
    I do not want to read all the things that happened to 
Christian, because I am not sure I could get through it. But 
unfortunately, what happened to Christian is not a rare, 
isolated event. Shelley Reynolds will testify today. Her 
organization, Unlocking Autism, will be displaying thousands of 
pictures of autistic children at the ``Hear Their Silence'' 
autism rally this Saturday.
    Forty-seven percent of the parents who provided these 
pictures feel that their children's autism is linked to the 
immunizations--almost half. We frequently hear about the 
children with chronic ear infections and children who became 
autistic after spiking a fever with their vaccinations. Liz 
Birt was one of the hundreds of parents who contacted us. Her 
5-year-old son Matthew has been classified as autistic. He was 
developing normally. At age 15 months, following his MMR 
vaccine, he began to regress. Since the time of his 
vaccination, he has had chronic diarrhea. This is his picture--
a good-looking kid.
    This is very prevalent, this chronic diarrhea, in autistic 
children. Matthew also did not sleep on a regular basis for 
over 3 years. Liz took her son to numerous gastroenterologists 
in prominent medical facilities in the United States with no 
resolution. Finally, this past November, Liz took her son to 
London, to the Royal Free Hospital. A team of medical experts 
there examined Matthew. They felt that he had a bowel 
obstruction. To the family, this seemed impossible since he had 
constant diarrhea. An x-ray indicated that Matthew had a fecal 
mass in his colon the size of a cantaloupe. After the 
obstruction was cleared with laxatives, Matthew underwent an 
endoscopy and colonoscopy. The lesions in Matthew's bowel 
tested positive for the measles virus.
    Dr. Andrew Wakefield and Professor John O'Leary will be 
testifying today. Their research has uncovered a possible 
connection between inflammatory bowel disorder in children with 
autism who receive the MMR vaccine and have measles virus in 
their small intestines.
    Since coming home from England and being treated for 
chronic inflammatory bowel disorder, Matthew has finally begun 
to sleep through the night. I know that is a welcome relief for 
his family.
    Unfortunately, Matthew's story is not that unusual in 
children with autism. Our grandson has a similar problem. 
Unfortunately, it is important that I make two things very 
clear today. I, and I believe every Member of Congress, am not 
against vaccinations, and I do not think that every autistic 
child acquires autism after receiving childhood immunizations.
    I think slide 3 shows a lot of children who have had 
autism--is that correct--those are before-and-after pictures of 
the children.
    However, there is enough evidence emerging of some kind of 
connection for some children that we cannot close our eyes to 
it--we have to learn more.
    Dr. Mary Megson of Richmond, VA will testify about the 
correlation she has seen in children with autism and attention 
deficit disorder. She has seen a correlation between Vitamin A 
depletion and immune suppression after receiving the MMR 
vaccination.
    There are certainly children who are born with autism. They 
have what can be called ``classical autism.'' There is, 
however, a growing number of children who are growing normally 
and then acquire autism, or ``atypical autism.''
    There most probably is a genetic component to autism, but 
genetics is not the only issue. Many children seem to have 
severe food sensitivities, particularly to gluten and casein, 
ingredients in the most common foods, dairy and wheat. Many of 
these children show signs of autism shortly after receiving 
their immunizations. Some of these children, as we will hear 
from Jeana Smith, have metal toxicities, aluminum and mercury. 
What is the source of these toxic substances?
    Dr. Goldberg will testify that maybe what we are seeing is 
not autism at all, but a neuro-immunologic dysfunction.
    I am very concerned about the increased number of childhood 
vaccines. I am concerned about the ingredients that are put in 
these vaccines. I am concerned about the way they are given. We 
have learned that most of the vaccines our children are given 
contain mercury, aluminum and formaldehyde. Last year, the FDA 
added up the amount of mercury our babies are being given to 
learn that in the first 6 months of life, they receive more 
mercury than is considered safe. Think about that--in the first 
6 months of life, the FDA has said that children are receiving 
more mercury than is considered safe, and most of that is from 
vaccinations. Why is it that the FDA licenses vaccines that 
contain neurotoxins like mercury and aluminum?
    When asked about the increased rates of autism, many will 
immediately discount that there is even an increase--even 
though the latest statistics from the Department of Education 
show increased rate in every, single State. This slide shows 
you that every State has seen a dramatic increase.
    Others will say the increase is due to better diagnostic 
skills. Others will say it is because the diagnostic category 
was expanded. If we look at the slide showing California here, 
California has reported a 273 percent increase in children with 
autism since 1988. From this increase, 21 percent of all 
autistic children in California live in the 29th District, 
which is Henry Waxman's district, who is the ranking Democrat 
on our committee.
    Florida has reported a 571 percent increase in autism. 
Maryland has reported a 513 percent increase between 1993 and 
1998. You cannot attribute all of that to better diagnostic 
skills.
    In 1999, there are 2,462 children ages 3 to 21 in Indiana 
diagnosed with autism. That is one-fourth of 1 percent of all 
the school children in Indiana, or 1 out of every 400; 23 
percent of these children live in my district, the 6th District 
of Indiana.
    This increase is not just better counting. If we want to 
find a cure, we must first look to the cause. We must do this 
now, before our health and education systems are bankrupted, 
and before more of our Nation's children are locked inside 
themselves with this disease.
    Kenneth Curtis, part of ``Dave's Morning Show'' at Oldies 
100 FM here in Washington, will set the stage by talking about 
being the parent of an autistic child. He will be followed by 
James Smythe, of Carmel, IN. He will share how, through 
properly looking at autism as an illness and addressing that 
illness, his son is improving.
    Scott Bono, from North Carolina, lives close to one of the 
finest medical facilities in the world--Duke University. 
However, he has been unable to find medical experts to properly 
address his autistic son's needs. He is forced to drive 12 
hours every 4 weeks for his son's medical treatments.
    Dr. William Dankner, the father of a 13-year-old daughter 
with autism, and a scientist, will testify about the challenges 
of finding therapies and treatments that have adequate 
research. He will also talk about the battle of getting 
adequate education through the public school system. I think 
all of us who have autistic children or grandchildren know the 
problems that it involves.
    We hear repeatedly that parents are not informed at the 
time of diagnosis by their school system what educational 
options an autistic child is entitled to. It is only after 
hiring lawyers and going through the legal process that many 
children have access to appropriate educational opportunities. 
We are learning that the earlier autism is diagnosed and 
treatments are begun, the better it is for the child. Indiana 
is fortunate to have the First Steps Early Intervention System, 
a nationally recognized system that provides early intervention 
services for children up to 2 years of age.
    Families are forced to spend huge sums of money out-of-
pocket even when they have good insurance, because autism is 
often specifically excluded. We need to talk to State 
legislators around this country to tell them how important it 
is, with the explosion of autism, that these benefits be 
mandated by the States and be covered by insurance.
    California passed legislation recently to require insurance 
companies to cover autism. Parents spend $20,000 to $30,000 a 
year. What medical care is covered is often done after 
extensive struggles with insurance companies.
    We have a long hearing scheduled today with a broad 
spectrum of ideas presented. We will have a variety of medical 
approaches presented. We will hear about secretin, which gained 
a great deal of media attention in the past year and from which 
many parents have seen tremendous success.
    Dr. John Upledger, a former adviser to the Office of 
Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, will 
testify on the use of craniosacral therapy. He is the director 
of the Upledger Institute in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. For more 
than 25 years, Dr. Upledger has been treating autistic children 
and helping families through this approach. Craniosacral 
therapy is a gentle, powerful form of body work that directly 
influences the brain and spinal cord. It is used to treat pain, 
discomfort, or trauma to the head or face, including TMJ 
dysfunction and headaches. Craniosacral therapy can also 
relieve physical and emotional trauma.
    In addition to his work with autism, Dr. Upledger has 
achieved dramatic results in treating post-traumatic stress 
disorder in Vietnam veterans.
    In addition to medical treatments for the physical symptoms 
of autism, there are numerous therapies that are needed to help 
autistic children. Special educational approaches are needed 
that can include intensive behavior modification, known as ABA, 
Lovass, music therapy, speech therapy, auditory integration and 
sensory integration, as well as play therapy.
    We will hear from both the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention and the National Institutes of Health about ongoing 
research and future needs. Of particular interest is the Brick 
Township study which has been evaluating a cluster of autism in 
New Jersey.
    This hearing will raise more questions than we can answer 
today. We owe it to our children and to our grandchildren to 
ensure that we are being diligent in looking for the causes of 
autism. We have to do everything humanly possible to determine 
if there is something that can be done to unlock our children 
from the prison that they are in as a result of autism. I think 
that as a top priority, we have to do much more research on the 
potential connection between vaccines and autism. We cannot 
stick our heads in the sand and ignore this possibility.
    If we do not take action now, 10 years from now, it may be 
too late, not only for this generation of children, but for our 
taxpayer-funded health and education systems, which could 
collapse from trying to care for all of these children.
    The hearing record will remain open for 2 weeks.
    I now yield to my colleague from California, Mr. Waxman, 
for his opening statement.

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Note/Warning:

Autistic people have fought the inclusion of ABA in therapy for us since before Autism Speaks, and other non-Autistic-led autism organizations, started lobbying legislation to get it covered by insurances and Medicaid. 

ABA is a myth originally sold to parents that it would keep their Autistic child out of an institution. Today, parents are told that with early intervention therapy their child will either be less Autistic or no longer Autistic by elementary school, and can be mainstreamed in typical education classes. ABA is very expensive to pay out of pocket. Essentially, Autism Speaks has justified the big price tag up front will offset the overall burden on resources for an Autistic’s lifetime. The recommendation for this therapy is 40 hours a week for children and toddlers.

The original study that showed the success rate of ABA to be at 50% has never been replicated. In fact, the study of ABA by United States Department of Defense was denounced as a failure. Not just once, but multiple times. Simply stated: ABA doesn’t work. In study after repeated study: ABA (conversion therapy) doesn’t work. 

What more recent studies do show: Autistics who experienced ABA therapy are at high risk to develop PTSD and other lifelong trauma-related conditions. Historically, the autism organizations promoting ABA as a cure or solution have silenced Autistic advocates’ opposition. ABA is also known as gay conversion therapy.

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[Note: Autism is NOT a disease, but a neurodevelopmental difference and disability.]

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Fact: Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism.

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