Archive for the ‘Dan Burton’ Category

Dan Burton is protecting your tax dollars.
Congressman Burton was one of only 39 members in the House to sign a “No Pork Barrel Spending Pledge.” The pledge defines Pork Barrel Spending (also known as earmarks) as:
The practice by which members of congress divert taxpayer funding to special projects outside of the normal competitive and merit-based review process.
Burton said he took the pledge because, “Someone needs to set an example for both Republicans and Democrats about how to respect tax payer dollars. The ‘pork factory’ in Congress is a disgrace, and I’ve made it my mission to fix it.”
Pork Barrel spending has been skyrocketing in recent years as Congress let spending get out of control.
Dan Burton says NO MORE.
As the Fiscal Year 2010 Appropriations process continues in Congress, Dan Burton has stayed true to his word. Not a single penny of pork can be attributed to his name.

Danny “Dan” Lee Burton (born June 21, 1938) is an American politician. He is a member of the United States House of Representatives for Indiana’s 5th congressional district, which includes most of the northern suburbs of Indianapolis as well as the southern fringe of the Fort Wayne area. A Republican, his first term in the United States Congress began in January 1983. He was elected to his fourteenth term in November 2008.
Burton’s district includes Tipton, Grant, Miami, Wabash, Huntington, Hamilton, and Hancock counties, and parts of Marion, Shelby, Howard and Johnson counties.
Education and early career
Burton worked as a caddy at a local country club in order to make ends meet, where he learned the golf skills that lead to his winning a statewide golf championship in high school.[1] He graduated from Shortridge High School in 1957, and attended Indiana University (1958–59) and the Cincinnati Bible Seminary (now known as Cincinnati Christian University) (1959–60). He served in the United States Army from 1956 to 1957, before leaving active duty to return to college but remained in the Army Reserves from 1957 to 1962. After school, Burton became a real estate broker and he founded the Dan Burton Insurance Agency in 1968.
Burton was a member of the Indiana House of Representatives from 1967 to 1968 and again from 1977 to 1980 and the Indiana State Senate from 1969 to 1970 and again from 1981 to 1982.
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections to the House
See also: United States House of Representatives elections in Indiana, 2008
Burton first ran for Congress in 1970, losing to incumbent Democrat Andrew Jacobs, Jr. Burton ran again in 1972, losing in the Republican primary to William Hudnut.
After the 1980 census, the Republican-controlled state legislature created a new 6th District, representing the mostly Republican-leaning counties surrounding Indianapolis. Burton ran in 1982, defeating Bruce Melchert in the GOP primary and Democrat George Grabianowski in the general election. Burton has won every election since 1982, usually getting well above 60 percent of the vote. His district was renumbered as the 5th District after the 2000 census.
In 2008, he faced a challenger in the Republican primary, Dr. John McGoff. Burton defeated McGoff 52% to 45% in the closest race of his career.
In the 2010 primary, he received less than 30%. He still retained the nomination, because the remainder of the vote was split among six separate challengers. The challengers were Luke Messer (28%), Dr. John McGoff again (19%), State Representative Mike Murphy (9%), Brose McVey (8%), Andy Lyons (4%) and Ann B. Adcock (3%).
Committees
• Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
o Subcommittee on Domestic Policy
o Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs
• Committee on Foreign Affairs
o Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia (Ranking Member)
o Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere
Caucuses
• Autism
• Automotive
• Bipartisan Disabilities
• Biotechnology
• Cancer Care Working Group (CCWG)
• Coalition for Autism Research and education (CARE)
• Complementary Alternative Medicine (CAM) – Co-Chairman*
• Congressional Bipartisan Cerebral Palsy – Founder & Chairman
• Congressional Anti-Terrorist Financing Task Force
• Congressional Caucus on the European Union
• Congressional Caucus on Global Road Safety
• Congressional Diabetes
• Congressional Fire Services
• Congressional Cuban Democracy
• Congressional Taskforce Against Anti-Semitism
• Distributed Energy
• Farmer Cooperative
• French
• Friends of Denmark
• Friends of New Zealand Congressional
• Friends of Norway
• House Republican Israel
• Human Rights
• Hungary
• Immigration Reform
• Indonesia – Co-Founder and Co-Chairman*
• Insurance – Chairman
• International Conservation
• I-69
• Malaria Caucus
• Malaysia Trade, Security, and Economic Cooperation
• Manufacturing
• Medical Malpractice Crisis Task Force
• Methamphetamine
• Missing and Exploited Children’s
• National Guard & Reserve Components
• National Spina Bifida
• Taiwan
• Textile
• Turkey
• US-Israel Security
• Victim’s Rights
Zoo
Actions in Congress
Helms-Burton Legislation
In 1995, Burton authored legislation targeting foreign companies that did business with Cuba. The bill allowed foreign companies to be sued in American courts if, in dealings with the government of Fidel Castro, they acquired assets formerly owned by Americans. In February 1996, Cuba shot down two small Brothers to the Rescue planes piloted by anti-Castro Cuban-Americans. As part of the White House response to crack down on Cuba, President Clinton signed the Helms-Burton Act into law.
Conservative voting record
Burton is a consistent Conservative vote in the US House. In the 109th Congress, he had a 100% rating from the National Right to Life Committee . He also has an A rating with the Gun Owners of America .
Burton has received a number of awards from conservative groups, including a Friend of the Farm Bureau award in 2004 from the American Farm Bureau Federation, a True Blue award in 2006 the Family Research Council, eight Guardian of Small Business Awards from the National Federation of Independent Business and twenty-two Spirit of Enterprise awards from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,
The Government Performance and Results Act
Burton was the primary sponsor for a 1998 effort , opposed by the Clinton administration [19], to require federal government agencies to do more strategic planning, establish more accountability measurements, and do more reporting on their performance. H.R. 2883, the “Government Performance and Results Act Amendments”, was not enacted into law.
Exposing the Winter Hill Gang/FBI Corruption
In his role as Chairman of the House Government Oversight Committee, Burton helped expose FBI corruption that led to the wrongful conviction of Joseph Salvati, Peter Limone, Henry Tameleo and Louis Greco for the murder of Edward “Teddy” Deegan. The three year investigation that Burton spearheaded helped exonerate the four, who were eventually awarded $102 million by Boston Federal Judge Nancy Gertner.
Republican Study Committee
Main article: Republican Study Committee
The Republican Study Committee (RSC) was founded in 1973. The group functioned as a Legislative Service Organization until such groups were abolished under House rules in the first days of the 104th Congress (1995). Burton was its last Chairman. Shortly thereafter, the group was restarted as the Conservative Action Team, with representatives Burton, John Doolittle (R-CA), Ernest Istook (R-OK), and Sam Johnson (R-TX) as co-founders. In 2001 the group renamed itself as the Republican Study Committee.
Vaccines and autism
Main article: Thiomersal controversy
Burton has been an outspoken critic of what he terms the failure of government to determine the cause of an alleged autism epidemic. 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.”
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.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not agree that vaccines containing mercury caused autism, and the US FDA refused to ban the vaccines. Most manufacturers removed the preservatives from their vaccines anyway, with no resulting decrease in autism rates.
Burton continues to maintain a page on his Congressional website called House.gov “Autism” which includes his speeches, transcripts from hearings, and newspaper articles on the relationship of autism and vaccines.
Controversies
Vincent Foster
Burton was one of the most ardent opponents of President Bill Clinton. In 1998, he said, “If I could prove 10 percent of what I believe happened, he’d [Clinton] be gone. This guy’s a scumbag. That’s why I’m after him.” Rep. Burton led the House inquiry into the death of Vincent Foster; he was convinced that Foster was murdered and urged extensive investigation into the possible involvement of the Clintons. Burton gained attention for re-enacting the alleged crime in his backyard with his own pistol and a pumpkin standing in for Foster’s head. After hearings into Democratic fundraising (see section below) began, a Democratic National Committee staffer appeared in a pumpkin suit with a button that read, “Don’t shoot.” Burton’s information during the Whitewater controversy was based on opposition research conducted by Floyd Brown, who founded Citizens United in 1988, which created the infamous Willie Horton attack ad against Michael Dukakis. Because of the problems with the quality of Brown’s research and testimony, the investigation was closed.
Golfing
In 1990, the New York Times reported that in 1989, Burton had been a “celebrity player” at the Bob Hope Classic in Palm Springs, Calif., the Kemper Open in Potomac, Md., the Larry Bird Golf Classic in Indianapolis, the Danny Thompson Memorial tournament in Sun Valley, Idaho, the Sugarloaf Invitational tournament in Maine and the Arte Johnson tournament in Chicago. Such players received free airline flights, free meals, and free lodging from tournament sponsors and, often, free merchandise.
In November 1995, the House voted to prohibit members and their staffs from receiving gifts, including free meals and free travel to charity sports events. Burton, who led the effort to exempt charity trips, said that he played in two golf tournaments each year, and, “We get more of these lobbyists in our office than we do on the golf course.”
In January 1997, Burton played in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, at the invitation of AT&T, the tournament sponsor. The day before the tournament, he played a practice round with Robert E. Allen, AT&T’s chairman and chief executive, at a nearby country club. AT&T also hosted a campaign fund-raising dinner for Burton at a local restaurant. Three weeks earlier, Burton had become the chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, which had jurisdiction over the legislative agency scheduled to soon award at least $5 billion in long-distance and local telephone and telecommunications contracts with the federal government. Burton defended his participation in the tournament, saying it would not affect his objectivity when dealing with telecommunications issues. He said that he had partially paid for the trip, with his re-election campaign funds paying as well because he attended three fund-raising events while in California.
In December 2004, Burton and two aides flew to the island of Guam. The trip was paid for by the Guam government and tourism industry. In addition to some official events, including touring a military facility, Burton played in a charity golf tournament. After he returned, he tried to help Guam’s tourism industry get a sought-after change in visa rules.
In January 2007, the House passed a measure by a vote 430-1 that banned members from accepting gifts and free trips from lobbyists and discounted trips on private planes. Burton cast the sole nay vote.
In February 2007, a review by the Indianapolis Star of votes in the House of Representatives for the past decade showed that Burton had missed all votes during the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic golf tournament for five years between 2001 and 2007. The tournament, the third event each season on the PGA Tour, pairs celebrities with golf professionals for four of the five days of play. Since 2004, Burton has played in a guest spot of the Eisenhower Medical Center, the primary charitable beneficiary of the event. The slot carries with it a commitment to donate $10,000 to the event; Burton has made arrangements with the hospital to do this over a period of time. Burton’s campaign committee reported donating $1,500 to the medical center in December 2004 and $6,353 in January 2006.
The Indianapolis Star review also found that in 2006, Burton ranked last in voting among members of Congress from Indiana, missing 11 percent of the 541 recorded votes. In 2007, the Indianapolis star rated his voting record as “one of the strongest in the House, with an attendance record consistently above 95%.”
“… off the coast of Bolivia”
On March 29, 1995, during congressional hearings on the US War on Drugs, Burton proclaimed that the US military “should place an aircraft carrier off the coast of Bolivia and crop dust the coca fields.” It was later pointed out to him that a) Bolivia is landlocked and has no coast (Burton was chairman of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee); b) the Bolivian coca fields (in the yungas and Amazon lowlands) are beyond the reach of any carrier-borne crop-duster, being separated from the nearest coastline (the Pacific coast of Peru and Chile) by the 20,000+ feet high peaks of the Andes; and c) F-18s cannot crop-dust. While criticism of this mis-statement was muted in Washington, it sparked a major anti-American backlash in Bolivia, derailing the same War on Drugs that Burton purported to be speaking for.
Investigation of Democratic Party fund-raising
Main article: 1996 United States campaign finance controversy
In 1997, Burton headed an investigation into possible Democratic Party campaign finance abuse, focusing on the 1996 Presidential election. The committee investigation ran for several years and issued over 1,000 subpoenas of Clinton administration officials and cost over $7 million. The committee, and Burton’s leadership, were labeled a “farce”, a “travesty”, a “parody”, and “its own cartoon, a joke, and a deserved embarrassment”.
In March 1997, as the investigation began, Burton was accused of demanding a $5,000 contribution from a Pakistani lobbyist. The lobbyist said that when he was unable to raise the funds, Burton complained to the Pakistani ambassador and threatened to make sure “none of his friends or colleagues” would meet with the lobbyist or his associates.
In May 1998, Burton apologized for releasing edited transcripts of prison audiotapes of Webster Hubbell, a former associate of President Bill Clinton. The edited transcripts omitted substantial information and differed significantly from the original recordings. Burton was harshly criticized by members of his own party, including Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who called the investigation a “circus” and chided Burton for initially refusing to admit any error.
David Bossie, the staff member who arranged the editing and release of the tapes, resigned on Burton’s request. Noting that Burton had personally released the tapes and had supported Bossie’s plans over the objections of other committee staffers and attorneys, Democrats urged Burton to step down as well. Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt said, “A committee staff member should not be made the scapegoat for Chairman Burton’s mistakes, missteps, and misdeeds.” Burton said, “I take responsibility for those mistakes,” but never resigned nor faced any consequences for his actions.
In President Clinton’s final year in office, Burton was mentioned in a short film for the White House Correspondent’s Dinner. President Clinton: Final Days, which depicted Clinton as a lonely man closing down a nearly-deserted White House. Clinton is shown hitting golf balls from the South Lawn, and gets excited when he hits a car parked in a spot near the U.S. Capitol that says “Reserved for Chairman Burton.”