This is a guest post by Peter Bell, the executive vice president for programs and services at Autism Speaks. He oversees the foundation’s government relations and family services activities and also serves as an advisor to the science division.
I couldn’t be happier to share once again the news that we all had been waiting for…the Combating Autism Reauthorization Act is on its way to President Obama. Late Monday night, the U.S. Senate passed HR2005, the same bill that passed the House of Representatives last week.

Office Hours easily connects families to a wide variety of autism-related resources, including Family Services Tool Kits, and the Autism Speaks Resource Guide, an online national database of autism providers and resources searchable by state and zip code.
Family Services Office Hours is designed to quickly provide access to resources that are available and free to the entire autism community.

Ursitti is the director of State Government Affairs at Autism Speaks and is the mother of two children, 8-year-old Jack and 11-year-old Amy. She lives just outside of Boston and has been involved in autism advocacy since Jack’s autism diagnosis 6 years ago. She writes a personal blog called Autismville.

Sometimes words that aren’t actually spoken out loud are the most powerful of all. Lou is the married father of three. His eldest daughter has autism. You can read more at blog, Lou’s Land.

This guest post is by Andy Shih, Ph.D., the Vice President of Scientific Affairs at Autism Speaks.

The landmark Combating Autism Act (CAA), signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2006, gave all of us in the autism community a foundation on which to build. But key provisions in the law are scheduled to sunset September 30. Unless Congress acts quickly to renew the law, the funding we need to continue vital research will vanish. The progress we have made over the past five years will grind to a halt. There simply is no more important or immediate issue for us today at the national level.