Each year, the Department of Defense funds medical research into issues that impact on the military and their families. Autism Speaks, a powerful fundraising and lobbying oganization which recently merged with the National Association for Autism Research (NAAR), has had lobbyists in Washington for several years, working on getting research appropriations from the DOD and other agenices.

According to an Autism Speaks press release, volunteer lobbyists have persuaded the House of Representatives Defense Appropriations Subcommittee to include a line item for $7.5 million for research on autism spectrum disorders in its FY 2007 appropriations bill which must now pass through the Joint Conference Committee. Their rhetoric was persuasive: "Based on the most recent prevalence estimates, at least 4,600 children and minor dependents of active duty families have autism, and the cost of their treatment exceeds $200 million per year."