We must treat autism as a condition of urgent public health concern and raise awareness in education of the disorder.

I want to thank you for holding this hearing on two very important public health bills, and I welcome the bipartisan spirit that brings us together today.

I am proud of the bill that you and I introduced together, H.R. 1852, the Children's Hospital Graduate Medical Education Support Reauthorization Act of 2011.

Now, today we are also considering the Combating Autism Reauthorization Act of 2011.

The only problem that I have though, now we have this FDA funding bill that the House Republicans just passed, and that guts the FDA's funding by $570 million.

We must not sacrifice safety and efficacy in exchange for innovation.

I would like to close by commenting on the importance of the Drug Safety Enhancement Act.

I appreciate the need for the kinds of proposals listed under the heading of Advancing Regulatory Science and Innovation.

What is important to note, however, is that this committee worked through the issues in a bipartisan manner, and I am proud of the consensus that we reached.

I hope we can move in the same bipartisan spirit as we did in 2007.

America's competitiveness depends on our ability to innovate and keep America number one, and as such I continue to believe that the government must be responsible for facilitating an environment where Americans can continue to innovate.

This really shows that we are being bipartisan today.