dr. dawson.the chief science officer for autism speaks, prior to that position she was a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the university of washington, the founding director of the university's autism center, dr. dawson received her phd from the university of washington. dr. dawson, thank you very much, and please proceed. again, summarized in five to seven minutes we would appreciate it. >> good morning, mr. chairman. >> punch the button. >> good morning, mr. chairman. i want to thank you for inviting me. i am very honored to appear before this subcommittee. and i want to thank the committee members, and you, mr. chairman, for your leadership in providing full funding for the combating autism act. and also for your most recent fiscal year 2010 appropriations bill. this year, more children will be diagnosed with autism, as you may know, then with aids, diabetes and cancer combined. autism research, however, is still significantly underfunded despite greater public and congressional aware

dr. dawson is right about that. i know we're running out of time, but i just think it should be set by somebody here that there will be a time in the future where we will have a much better understanding of the environmental causes of autism. one concern that people have is that if we get stuck looking at one thing over and over again, we will miss the opportunity to look at another cause. we agree that the evidence now is very clear -- it does not explain very much about what we know about autism. we may be able to eliminate a rare event that is in place here that would connect the two. all the evidence says this is not the main story. the question for us is, where is the main story? where should we be looking? i would hope that the focus on this topic, particularly in this conversation today does not obscure the fact that there is probably something out there that is truly important that we need to be focusing on very quickly and move into very quickly. the hope is that the kinds of studies that dr. dawson suggest

dr. dawson. before we go on, i want to recognize my good friend and colleague from pennsylvania, with whom i have shared the gavel here over the last almost 20 years. senator specter is a member of the judiciary committee. they are on the floor now with the sotomayor ofoundation. >> thank you for yielding. we are taking up the confirmation hearing of judge sotomayor or for supreme court. i am due on the floor shortly, but i wanted to thank you, mr. chairman, and the ranking member for scheduling this hearing on this very important subject, and thank the witnesses for coming in. autism is a heartbreaking alemaailment. one of the toughest part is talking to parents who have children suffering from autism, and there's a real question of doing more. we have worked hard on funding for the national institutes of health. for a decade, we are able to raise funding from $12 billion to $30 billion, at a time when senator harkin and i have transferred the gobble -- gavel. regrettably, that is not enough. i

dr. dawson. before we go on, i want to recognize my good friend and colleague from pennsylvania, with whom i have shared the gavel here over the last almost 20 years. senator specter is a member of the judiciary committee. they are on the floor now with the sotomayor ofoundation. >> thank you for yielding. we are taking up the confirmation hearing of judge sotomayor or for supreme court. i am due on the floor shortly, but i wanted to thank you, mr. chairman, and the ranking member for scheduling this hearing on this very important subject, and thank the witnesses for coming in. autism is a heartbreaking alemaailment. one of the toughest part is talking to parents who have children suffering from autism, and there's a real question of doing more. we have worked hard on funding for the national institutes of health. for a decade, we are able to raise funding from $12 billion to $30 billion, at a time when senator harkin and i have transferred the gobble -- gavel. regrettably, that is not enough. i

dr. dawson. before we go on, i want to recognize my good friend and colleague from pennsylvania, with whom i have shared the gavel here over the last almost 20 years. senator specter is a member of the judiciary committee. they are on the floor now with the sotomayor ofoundation. >> thank you for yielding. we are taking up the confirmation hearing of judge sotomayor or for supreme court. i am due on the floor shortly, but i wanted to thank you, mr. chairman, and the ranking member for scheduling this hearing on this very important subject, and thank the witnesses for coming in. autism is a heartbreaking alemaailment. one of the toughest part is talking to parents who have children suffering from autism, and there's a real question of doing more. we have worked hard on funding for the national institutes of health. for a decade, we are able to raise funding from $12 billion to $30 billion, at a time when senator harkin and i have transferred the gobble -- gavel. regrettably, that is not enough. i

dr. dawson mentioned is private insurance.here are virtually no policies in our state that cover autism therapies. there are none. in fact, it does not only cover behavioral therapy, but senators, it only covers 20 visit of any type of speech, o.t., or wetp.t. that is combined speech and ot. you concealing many of these children on not getting the assistance they need because the visit our kind of costly. those are the kinds of things that we looked at the gaps that needed to be filled. >> we ought to introduce a bill to modernize our laws on medicaid and reimbursement. >> how do people afford to do this? >> they can't. >> frankly, they can't. i do not have the exact figures, but we have been working quite a bit to get coverage. b -- it is a foxhole by foxhole case. these families have to do without. again, it is being done on a state-by-state basis. how you can do some sort of insurance pre-emption would be the ideal way to go. this is an educational issue, not a health issue, some have said. if you have seen my two sons, it