posey, bill Rep 6%
===
http://scorecard.lcv.org/moc/bill-posey
2023 3%
6/6%
==
may 18 2016 exxon dci hacker
abuse of prosecutorial discretion
ask for docs
Sensenbrenner Neugebauer posey frank lucas dana Rohrabacher
mo brooks
bridenstine randy weber john moolenaar
brian babin loudermilk ralph lee abraham
vaxxer
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2015/07/30/the-return-of-the-revenge-of-the-cdc-whistleblower/
A couple of weeks ago, I first took note of a new conspiracy theory that’s been brewing in the antivaccine crankosphere, namely the claim that big pharma has been systematically murdering alternative medical doctors, starting with autism quack Jeff Bradstreet, who committed suicide the day after the FDA raided his office. Of course, it didn’t take long for various supporters of quackery to conclude that it was a hit job. Heck, just yesterday, Julie Wilson, a staff writer working for uber-crank Mike Adams, posted a whopper of a conspiracy theory in which Bradstreet and other alternative docs were executed because vaccines supposedly increase the level of an enzyme called nagalase, which blocks the activity of a compound called GcMAF, which was the “treatment” for autism that Bradstreet was peddling, leading to autism, cancer, and practically every disease under the sun. According to this whopper, because GcMAF is a universal cure for cancer (which, by the way, it is not), big pharma couldn’t let him live, particularly since he “discovered” that vaccines induce nagalase production and thus cause cancer.
From there, the slaughter apparently began, the most recent victim being cancer quack Nicholas Gonzalez. That’s the new conspiracy theory. However, never let it be said that the antivaccine movement is incapable of concentrating on more than just one conspiracy theory at a time. In fact, they’re capable of concentrating on many. So it’s no surprise that an older conspiracy theory has been resurrected. I’m referring, of course, to the “CDC Whistleblower” conspiracy theory, which is a variant of the central conspiracy theory of the antivaccine movement, namely that the CDC is covering up smoking gun evidence that vaccines cause autism.
The so-called CDC whistleblower is a CDC psychologist named William Thompson. He was an author on several pivotal papers examining whether vaccines cause autism. All of the studies were negative, of course, but that just adds to the conspiracy. Basically, nearly a year ago, Thompson was featured in a short film by Andrew Wakefield as a “whistleblower” who had “confessed” to a biochemical engineer named Brian Hooker that for one of the studies for which he had been a coauthor in 2004 (Destefano et al) investigators had “covered up” a correlation between MMR vaccination and autism in African-American males and had not followed the protocol as written. He based this claim on a truly incompetently done “reanalysis” of Destefano et al, which he later touted for its “simplicity,” not realizing that simplicity in statistical analyses of epidemiological data. Suffice to say, the original correlation was based on small numbers and disappeared when proper corrections for confounders was made. Not surprisingly, Hooker’s reanalysis was ultimately retracted. None of this has stopped Hooker and Wakefield from trying to make hay about this “CDC Whistleblower” scandal or antivaccinationists from swarming Twitter on the #CDCWhistleblower hashtag. Thompson himself has been silent since last fall, when this whole kerfuffle erupted, and probably wisely so. Whatever his motivation, he has caused considerable damage with his foolishness in having trusted Brian Hooker.
So yesterday, an antivaccine legislator that you might or might not heard of before, Rep. Bill Posey (R-Florida) apparently got up on the floor of the House to speak at something called Morning Hour, where members can basically say what they want for a few short minutes. (Given that there are 435 voting members of the House, there isn’t time to let every Representative blather on interminably.) Posey’s speech is about 1:02 in:
I know this because the team behind the antivaccine crankfest of a propaganda “documentary,” The Greater Good, sent out a missive touting what Posey said:
US Congressman Bill Posey spoke today on the floor of the US House quoting CDC whistleblower Dr. Bill Thompson stating that CDC DESTROYED DOCUMENTS to cover their tracks when they concealed their own study’s findings that MMR vaccine caused a huge risk of autism in black boys when given before 3 years of age.
Thanks to our friends at Age of Autism who broke this story.
PLEASE EMAIL CONGRESSMAN POSEY:
Send EMAILS of support directly to Bill Posey’s assistant Patricia Febro at Patricia.Febro@mail.house.gov.
PLEASE ALSO EMAIL/CALL/WRITE YOUR OWN CONGRESSPERSON. Include the link to the C-SPAN video. Find your Representative here: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/
Emails become permanent records, unlike faxes or postal mail, which might become ‘lost’. Emails do NOT have to be long, just say “I support Bill Posey and thank him for his testimony today regarding the CDC’s intentional destruction of documents. I am grateful William Thompson retained hard copies documenting the truth and as a parent of a vaccine injured child, I am requesting a full investigation into this issue.” or something like this. Request that Congress subpoena Dr. Thompson to testify in front of Congress.
First of all, I’m not sure about that claim that postal mail is less “permanent” than e-mail. Be that as it may, what’s far more important is what Posey said, rather than what cranks who made an antivaccine movie are urging their fellow cranks to do; so let’s take a look at that. Age of Autism helpfully has provided a transcript, so that I don’t have to do the painful thing I’ve sometimes done and make a transcript myself.
I’ll also dispense with Posey’s denial that he is antivaccine, stated thusly, “To begin with, I am absolutely, resolutely pro-vaccine. Advancements in immunization have saved countless lives and have greatly benefited public health.” This is almost as risible as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. characterizing himself as “fiercely pro-vaccine.” It’s nonsense. Posey is a man who has been on the side of the antivaccine fringe for quite some time. Heck, he even appeared at the antivaccine quackfest Autism One in 2013 as part of a “Congressional panel”! He even introduced legislation that’s gone nowhere requiring the CDC to do a retrospective “vaccinated vs. unvaccinated” study. As I put it, Posey appears to be vying to take over the title of most antivaccine legislator in the U.S. Congress since Dan Burton retired. Not surprisingly, he has received not-insubstantial donations from prominent members of the antivaccine movement, several with names that, if you typed them into the search box of this blog, would bring up multiple posts packed with pristine Insolence. Whenever someone who is a associated with the antivaccine movement and has demonstrated antivaccine proclivities through his actions so piously denies being antivaccine, a good rule of thumb is that he is almost certainly antivaccine, and in this case Posey is just that.
After citing Thompson’s one and only public statement on the issue since Wakefield’s, issued nearly a year ago, Posey read a new statement allegedly made by Thompson. Most of it is stuff I’ve heard before and blogged about, but this part was new:
At the bottom of Table 7 it also shows that for the non-birth certificate sample, the adjusted race effect statistical significance was huge. All the authors and I met and decided sometime between August and September ’02 not to report any race effects for the paper. Sometime soon after the meeting, we decided to exclude reporting any race effects, the co-authors scheduled a meeting to destroy documents related to the study. The remaining four co-authors all met and brought a big garbage can into the meeting room and reviewed and went through all the hard copy documents that we had thought we should discard and put them in a huge garbage can. However, because I assumed it was illegal and would violate both FOIA and DOJ requests, I kept hard copies of all documents in my office and I retained all associated computer files. I believe we intentionally withheld controversial findings from the final draft of the Pediatrics paper.
If this is a legitimate statement actually by Thompson, which is certainly possible, given that it’s known that Thompson has been in contact with Posey, this is the first time Thompson has alleged anything actually unethical or illegal. All his previous accusations before could easily be explained as being disagreements based on Thompson’s misunderstanding of statistics, how to control for confounding variables, and the perils of relying on such a small subset to make any conclusions. This is the first time he’s accused his coinvestigators of outright destruction of data, which is a very serious charge. Destruction of the primary documents for a government-funded scientific study is not only scientific fraud, but a federal crime as well.
===
wiki
William J. "Bill" Posey[1] (born December 18, 1947) is the U.S. Representative for Florida's 8th congressional district, serving in Congress since 2009. He is a member of the Republican Party. He formerly served in the Florida Senate and the Florida House of Representatives.
Contents
Early life, education, and business career
Posey was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Beatrice (née Tohl) and Walter J. Posey. His mother's family immigrated from Russia and is of Jewish heritage.[2] Posey moved to Florida in 1956, as his father took a job in engineering with NASA. In 1969, he graduated from Brevard Community College with an Associate of Arts degree.
He obtained his own work at NASA,[clarification needed] but was laid off at the end of the Apollo Space Program. From 1974 to 1976, Bill Posey worked on the Rockledge Planning Commission. In 1976, he was elected as a member of the City Council, and from 1986 to 1992, he was a member of the Brevard County Business and Industrial Development Commission. Posey then founded his own real estate company in the 1970s. He later became director of the state Association of Realtors. While serving in local politics, he also became a researcher on government accountability and transparency.
Florida legislature
In 2006, Posey authored Activity Based Total Accountability, which outlines his suggestions for improving American politics.
While serving in the state legislature, Posey was a chief sponsor of a bill designed to modernize the Florida election process, in response to the 2000 presidential election controversy. He also worked to revise insurance policy, so as to aid hurricane victims.[3]
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
2008
See also: United States House of Representatives elections in Florida, 2008 § District 15
In 2008, Posey ran to replace retiring U.S. Congressman Dave Weldon, who had occupied the 15th District seat since 1995, when the district first voted Republican. He was opposed by Democrat Stephen Blythe, and the independent, libertarian leaning Frank Zilaitis. Posey won with 53% of the vote, defeating his closest challenger, Blythe, by 11%.[4]
2010
Main article: United States House of Representatives elections in Florida, 2010 § District 15
Posey won re-election against former NASA executive and public administrator Shannon Roberts.
2012
Main article: United States House of Representatives elections in Florida, 2012 § District 8
Posey won re-election with nearly 60% of the vote against Democratic nominee Shannon Roberts and non-partisan candidate Richard Gillmor.[5]
2014
Main article: United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections_in_Florida,_2014 § District_8
Posey won re-election with 65.84% of the vote against Democratic candidate Gabriel Rothblatt.
Tenure
Bill Posey is a signer of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.[6]
On March 12, 2009, Posey introduced into the United States House of Representatives H.R. 1503.[7] Posey claims that the bill, which would require future presidential candidates to provide a copy of their original birth certificate, is a reaction to claims that President Barack Obama is not a natural born U.S. citizen.[8][9] Critics, including the editorial board of The Orlando Sentinel, have claimed that the bill further perpetuates the theories.
When asked whether or not he believed Obama to be a natural born citizen, Posey remarked that his beliefs on the matter were irrelevant.[10] Posey's bill gained the support of 12 Republican co-sponsors.[11][12]
Committee assignments
---
2025
Caucus memberships
- Liberty Caucus
- Freedom Caucus[9]
- Congressional Arts Caucus[10]
- Congressional Constitution Caucus[11]
- United States Congressional International Conservation Caucus[12]
- Climate Solutions Caucus[13]
- Republican Study Committee[14]
Political positions
Birther bill
"H.R. 1503" redirects here. For the star HR 1503, see Beta Caeli.
Shortly after entering Congress, Posey introduced legislation (H.R. 1503) to amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to require candidates for the presidency "to include with the [campaign] committee's statement of organization a copy of the candidate's birth certificate" and supporting documentation.[15] Introduced without the Republican leadership's knowledge,[16] the bill, Florida Today wrote, "stems from fringe opponents of President Barack Obama who, during the 2008 election campaign, questioned whether Obama was born in Hawaii". Florida Today added that Posey's office "does not question Obama's citizenship."[17] Posey said his motivation was to "prevent something like this from happening in the future" by requiring "the birth certificate up front and take [the issue] off the table". His initiative was strongly criticized by Florida Democrats, who accused him of trying to "fan the rumors on the extreme fringe of the Republican Party" and "pandering to the right wing".[18] Posey said that there was now "no reason to question" that Obama is a U.S. citizen.[19] The 111th Congress never voted on the bill.[20]
Environment and energy
In 2016, Posey sponsored legislation to reauthorize and reprioritize funding to clean up America's estuaries signed into law by President Obama.[21][22][23]
At a May 2018 hearing in the Science, Space and Technology Committee, Posey promoted the claim that climate scientists in the 1970s believed the Earth was cooling;[24] expressed skepticism that humans contribute to climate change, asking whether climate change was occurring because carbon dioxide captured in permafrost was now leaking out;[24] and asked whether warming would be beneficial for habitats and to people.[24] Posey said, "I don't think anybody disputes that the Earth is getting warmer; I think what's not clear is the exact amount of who caused what, and getting to that is, I think, where we're trying to go with this committee."[24]
Foreign policy
In June 2021, Posey was one of 49 House Republicans to vote to repeal the AUMF against Iraq.[25][26]
Posey was among 19 House Republicans to vote against the final passage of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act.[27]
In February 2022, Posey co-sponsored the Secure America's Borders First Act, which would prohibit the expenditure or obligation of military and security assistance to Kyiv over the U.S. border with Mexico.[28]
In 2023, Posey was among 47 Republicans to vote in favor of H.Con.Res. 21, which directed President Joe Biden to remove U.S. troops from Syria within 180 days.[29][30]
In 2024, Posey voted against the $60 billion military aid package for Ukraine, although much of the money would go to his constituency.[31]
Gun law
Posey supported legislation that mandates concealed carry permit reciprocity among states.[32]
From 2015 to 2016, Posey accepted $2,000 in direct campaign contributions from the NRA Political Victory Fund;[33] from 2008 to 2016 he accepted $13,500 from NRA political action committees.[34]
Posey was one of the original cosponsors of the Repeal of the Implementation of the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007, which repealed Obama-era legislation aimed at preventing the mentally infirm from legally purchasing firearms.[35]
After the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, Posey expressed support for legislation that would ban bump stocks.[36]
Healthcare
Posey supported repealing the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), calling it a "fiasco" that "was passed under a lot of misrepresentation."[37]
Net neutrality
Posey was the only Republican representative to vote with the Democratic-controlled House for the Save the Internet Act of 2019, which would overturn the Federal Communications Commission's repeal of net neutrality and "restore Obama-era net neutrality protections."[38][39]
Public health
Posey is a proponent of the theory that vaccines cause autism.[40][41] He wrote a foreword for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s 2015 book Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak, which espoused the theory that thimerosal causes autism.[42]
Tax reform
Posey voted for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.[43]
Immigration
Posey sponsored H.R. 6202, the American Tech Workforce Act of 2021, introduced by Representative Jim Banks. The legislation would establish a wage floor for the high-skill H-1B visa program, thereby significantly reducing employer dependence on the program. The bill would also eliminate the Optional Practical Training program that allows foreign graduates to stay and work in the United States.[44]
Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023
Posey was among the 71 House Republicans who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023.[45]
References
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