ROBERTS LAUDS SENATE PASSAGE
OF LANDMARK AUTISM AWARENESS PACKAGE
Five Measures Now Head to Governor

(TRENTON) - Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr. today applauded the Senate's passage of five measures he championed to improve the detection, treatment and awareness of autism in New Jersey.

"New Jersey has taken a significant step forward in its efforts to solve the puzzle of autism," said Roberts (D-Camden). "For families whose loved ones are locked in the grasp of this disorder, today's actions send a signal that New Jersey will put its vast resources to use on their behalf."

The measures are part of a landmark legislative package Roberts crafted to combat the state's highest-in-the-nation rate of reported cases of autism - one out of every 94 children; the national average was a rate of one of approximately every 150 children.

The measures which passed today by the Senate are:

• A-2306 - establishes a centralized statewide autism registry and appropriates $500,000 - Assemblyman John F. McKeon (D-Essex), Speaker Roberts, Assemblyman Nelson Albano (D-Cumberland), and Assemblywoman Joan Voss (D-Bergen);
• A-4055 - train teachers in autism awareness - Assemblyman Jim Whelan (D-Atlantic), Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen), Voss and Roberts;
• A-4056 - requires pediatricians to screen for symptoms of autism - Assemblymen Herbert C. Conaway, M.D. (D-Burlington) Michael Panter (D-Monmouth), Roberts, Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen), and Assemblyman Louis Greenwald (D-Camden); 
• A-4057 - creates a new expert panel to study the needs of autistic adults - Roberts, Assemblywoman Joan Voss (D-Bergen), Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic), and McKeon;
• A-4059 - extends funding for autism medical research and treatment - Roberts, Assemblyman David Mayer (D-Camden), Voss, and Whelan, and Greenwald.

"Autism impacts entire communities," said Roberts (D-Camden).  "These measures will help New Jersey not only address the startling number of children being diagnosed with autism, but allow us to extend a helping hand to countless autistic young adults and others who have aged-out of the state's special education system."

Following today's legislative action - including corresponding concurrence votes in the state Assembly on some of the autism bills - six bills from the Speaker's autism package will be on the Governor's desk for his potential signature into law.

Both houses had previously passed a measure (S-698/A-4054) Senator Loretta Weinberg  (D-Bergen) and Assemblywoman Voss championed to restructure the Governor's Council for Medical Research and Treatment of Autism.

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