Alongside Brick Residents, Smith Promotes Autism Funding

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith spoke Thursday about the importance of continuing autism research on the eve of the re-authorization of a bill that will provide $693 million of federal funding to combat the neurological disorder over the next three years.

"It's a significant amount of money," said Smith, a Republican from New Jersey's Fourth Congressional District at his Whiting office on Lacey Road as he spoke about the Combating Autism Act of 2011. "Of course, we would love to have more for these vital programs, but frankly it would all have expired and ended" if Congress did not pass the legislation.

The bill, which passed the House on Sept. 20 and the Senate on Monday, will be signed into law on Friday in the Oval Office and allow for the continued funding of autism research, early childhood detection and intervention treatment. 

Smith said that he wanted to meet in his Ocean County office because it is where he first met Brick residents Billy and Bobby Gallagher on Sept. 13, 1997, after the parents of two autistic children had written a letter to the Congressman asking for his help.

"They were very concerned that this cluster was a direct result of something going on in and around the area," Smith said, adding that the family did not receive much help from other local officials, including the school system. 

More parents began to mobilize and help in the effort as the Congressman became involved. Smith said that families brought autism studies to the attention of the Centers for Disease Control officials, as awareness of the disorder was low at the time.

"With all due respect to CDC, they weren't doing a thing about autism," Smith said.

Before his legislation, Smith said that the CDC spent $287,000 a year for five years on autism research, far less than the $231 million per year allocated in the current bill.

"There was no surveillance going on and no research," he said. "It just wasn't funded."

"That's when we introduced a bill that would establish centers of excellence as well as set up a federal advisory committee to become the quarterback of all the research," Smith said. 

Three years passed before the bill was written and passed. At first, it became Title I of the Children's Health Act signed into law in 2000. It was re-authorized in 2006 and renamed the Combating Autism Act, Smith said. 

The bill is important because of the growing number of autism cases seen not only in the United States, but around the world, was discovered in the mid-1990s, Smith said. 

"It wasn't just that we were capturing the data better, it is and continues to be a serious problem," he said, citing data that one out of every 110 children nationwide and one out of every 94 children in New Jersey is diagnosed with the disorder. Smith said that the problem continues to grow, as 1.5 million people in the country and 67 million in the world suffer with autism. 

The Gallaghers noted that their situation — having two autistic children — was a rarity 14 years ago and drew the attention of researchers. But now, researchers are discovering parents having multiple children with the disorder.

"We're not so rare anymore," Bobbie Gallagher said. 

Though identifying autism early and intervening with treatments at an early age is important, parents like the Gallaghers said that continued research will help as children become adults.

"When Billy and I first came here, we had two children with autism that were 5 and 6 years old," Bobbie Gallagher said. "Fourteen years later now, we have two adults with autism who are 19 and 20 years old."

"We're certainly getting better in doing the diagnosis, which is why the research is so important for our kids," Bobbie Gallagher said. 

"The research really needs to focus on what we can do for them," Bobbie Gallagher said. "Congressman Smith's efforts have been relentless to keep our kids in the forefront."

Gary Weitzen, executive director of Parents of Autistic Children, a nonprofit that provides services for New Jersey families dealing with the disorder, thanked Smith for his continued dedication to the cause, but noted that work remains to be done.

"The good news is we know how to reach and teach our kids with autism," Weitzen said. "We just have to do a much better job at it."

Smith represents Ocean County towns including Brick, Manchester, Lakehurst, Point Pleasant Beach and Borough, and Monmouth County municipalities including Howell, Manasquan and Wall.