Texas’s 6th District

Posted on October 16th, 2006 by Dig ad veritas

Needed U.S. autism study stalled due to politics - The Clarion-Ledger:

Recently, a glimmer of hope emerged from the hallowed Senate chambers when the U.S. Senate passed the Combating Autism Act by unanimous vote. It is hard to imagine the Senate acting in a unanimous, bi-partisan manner to pass a bill sponsored by Pennsylvania’s controversial Sen. Rick Santorum.


In the House of Representatives, the act had 228 co-sponsors (www.combatautism.org). It appeared this important piece of legislation would offer some level of assistance to the families that courageously and tirelessly care for autistic children. Not so fast. Enter Joe Barton and our not-so-democratic system of “business as usual” governance.

U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, a Texas Republican who chairs the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee, had his own agenda. He openly stated on CNN that he would not even consider the Combating Autism Act of 2006 until passage of his own NIH reform bill.

So, he bottled it up in committee and now the legislators have adjourned five weeks early to do what they really do: campaign and raise money.

I don’t even have words to convey just how outraged I am by this. Rep. Joe Barton even highlights this legislation on his website, conveniently leaving out that he put a hold on it. Shame, shame on him. Thank goodness there is an election in 3 weeks, tell him with your vote that we don’t play politics with our children.

His challenger is David T. Harris, a veteran from Arlington. Follow Me To DC

Filed under: Congress, David T. Harris, Joe Barton, November 7th, Texas district 6, campaign, campaign contributions, dirty politics, political stunt, politics, republican, scare tactics, texas, texas politics, vote

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3 Responses to “Texas’s 6th District”

  1. TechDigger, on October 17th, 2006 at 10:24 am Said:

    It looks like there may be a bit more than Barton being a strident defender of the independence of NIH and it having “nothing” to do with autism. I think it might be time to look at campaign contributions from certain industries.

    Star-Telegram | 10/16/2006 | Activists angry at Barton for bill’s holdup:

    Barton met with autism activists Sept. 12 and asked them to support his NIH legislation, which would give control of funding decisions to NIH managers. Autism advocates thought their bill would be next in line to clear Barton’s committee.

    While the NIH reform bill passed overwhelmingly 412-2, the separate autism bill hit a snag — Barton didn’t like the Senate bill’s stipulation that the centers of excellence investigate environmental factors.

    The autism bill has yet to make it to the House floor, and the autism activists say they feel betrayed. Moreover, they say tying the bills to each other kills both because there is no Senate version of the NIH reform bill.

  2. Dig Deeper Texas - Sometimes you have dig deeper to get past the bs » Autism update and little pieces of interest, on November 3rd, 2006 at 10:59 am Said:

    [...] You will remember we blogged about this here and here . I am glad Don Imus is putting it on center stage. Joe Barton should not be sitting on this money. 2006 general election Autism Don Imus texas politics texas vote election dirty politics dishonesty Glenda Dawson Joe Barton John Carter Mary Beth Harrell mercury republican This entry is filed under politics, texas politics, republican, texas, dirty politics, vote, election, Joe Barton, Austism, mercury, dishonesty, 2006 general election, Glenda Dawson, John Carter, Mary Beth Harrell, Don Imus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Leave a Reply [...]

  3. Dig Deeper Texas - Sometimes you have dig deeper to get past the bs » Autism on the rise, on February 21st, 2007 at 9:26 am Said:

    [...] In October we did two pieces about our very own Joe Barton sitting on the money for an autism study because he wanted his own pet projects funded first. From 1 in 15,000 to 1 in 166 in a little over a decade is certainly cause for alarm. We need to find the cause of such an increase and not worry about playing politics with who could be the cause. I don’t care how much money polluters and pharmacuetical companies contribute to politicians, this should transcend that. We need to start right in New Jersey. [...]

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