Sen. McCain has served in Congress since he was elected in 1982. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), "between 1994 and 2006, the number of 6- to 17-year-old children classified as having an ASD in public special education programs increased from 22,664 to 211,610." So in his 25-plus years of leadership, during a time when the number of students classified as autistic rose by at least 900 percent, what was Sen. McCain's record on autism?
His website is full of information about his accomplishments, and yet a search for the word "autism" on his official U.S. Senate website (as of Sept. 8, 2008), yields just four results -- all of them in reference to "objectionable provisions and pork" in appropriations bills.
-- "$1,000,000 for the Geisinger Health System, Harrisburg, PA to establish centers of excellence for the treatment of autism." (2003, this accounts for three search results)
-- "$490,000 to the James Whitcomb Riley Hospital for Children in Indiana to expand and enhance services at the autism clinic." (2001)
That's it. There's nothing else there. Is his Senate website just really bad and missing lots of information, or is there no record to report on?
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