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Dan Burton
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Indiana's 5th district
In office 1983-present
Preceded by	Steve Buyer
Personal details
Political party	Republican
Spouse	widowed

Danny "Dan" Lee Burton (born June 21 1938), American politician, is a member of the United States House of Representatives from Indiana's newly configured 5th Congressional district (map). A Republican, his first term in Congress began in January of 1983.

The 5th District is in central Indiana and includes all of Tipton, Grant, Miami, Wabash, Huntington, Hamilton, and Hancock counties, and parts of Marion, Shelby, Howard and Johnson counties.

Burton was born in Indianapolis, was educated at Indiana University and the Cincinnati Bible Seminary (now known as Cincinnati Christian University) and served in the United States Army. Before his election to Congress, Burton was a member of the Indiana State Senate (1969-1970 and 1981-1982), and the Indiana House of Representatives (1967-1968 and 1977-1980).

A senior member of the House International Relations Committee, Burton currently serves as Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, and as Vice-Chairman of the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific.

Also a member of the House Government Reform Committee, Burton served as its Chairman from 1997 to 2002. He is now a member of its Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats, and International Relations and Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources. Burton is also a member of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

In 1997, Burton was accused of demanding a $5,000 contribution from a Pakistani lobbyist. When the lobbyist was unable to raise the funds, Burton complained to the ambassador for the Bhutto government and later threatened to make sure "none of his friends or colleagues" would meet with the lobbyist or his associates.

In 1998, Burton admitted to fathering a child outside of his marriage.

That same year, his investigation of campaign fundraising irregularities during the 1996 Presidential campaign ground to a halt when it was revealed that his staff had doctored transcripts of prison phone calls made by former Clinton administration official Webster Hubbell.

In 2006, he fought against extending the Voting Rights Act for minorities.

Autism epidemic

Burton has been an outspoken critic of what he terms the failure of government to determine the cause of an alleged autism epidemic. He claims that his grandson became autistic a few days after receiving nine inoculations. "My only grandson became autistic right before my eyes – shortly after receiving his federally recommended and state-mandated vaccines." It should be noted that the Center for Disease Control and most of the mainstream medical establishment do not consider mercury poisoning as a cause for autism.

In an October 25, 2000, letter to the Department of Health and Human Services, acting in his role as Chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform, Burton asked the agency's director to get the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to recall all vaccines containing the preservative Thimerosal. "We all know and accept that mercury is a neurotoxin, and yet the FDA has failed to recall the 50 vaccines that contain Thimerosal," Burton wrote, adding "Every day that mercury-containing vaccines remain on the market is another day HHS is putting 8,000 children at risk." Burton's committee later discovered regulatory agencies have never required drug companies to conduct studies on the use of the widely used preservative, which is still used today in many flu shots.

External links

• House.gov - Burton's official homepage

• House.gov - 'Wellness Information: Autism & Vaccines' (autism reports compiled by Burton)

• Dan Burton on the Issues
• Scoop.co.nz - 'Pharma's Poisoned Generation', Evelyn Pringle, Scoop Independent News (November 29, 2005)
• Rebuttal to the Statement of Burton, Submitted by Timothy N. Gorski, M.D., F.A.C.O.G.
• Template:CongBio2

• Members of the United States House of Representatives from Indiana
• Indiana State Senators
• Members of the Indiana House of Representatives
• 1996 campaign finance scandal
• American Freemasons
• 1938 births
• Living people
• Current members of the United States House of Representatives
• Members of the 110th United States Congress who have served in the United States Military