[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 162 (Tuesday, November 16, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S14635]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. JEFFORDS:
  S. 1932. A bill to amend the Ricky Ray Hemophilia Relief Fund Act of 
1998 to revise and extend certain provisions; to the Committee on 
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.


                   the ricky ray fairness act of 1999

 Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, last year Congress passed and the 
President signed a significant measure that will, as funds are 
provided, provide compassionate compensation payments to hundreds of 
individuals. Public Law 105-369, the Ricky Ray Hemophilia Relief Act of 
1998, authorizes payments for hemophiliacs treated with blood products 
infected with HIV during the 1980s as well as their infected spouses 
and children. Last year, Mr. President, you and I, and all of our 
colleagues gave our unanimous consent to this measure because we all 
knew it was the right thing to do. But we accomplished only part of the 
job. We provided compassionate compensation to only a portion of the 
Americans who, through indecisiveness and inaction on the part of 
federal government, became infected with HIV. So today I am introducing 
legislation that will set the record straight and finish what needs to 
be done, and I hope that our colleagues will once again in the name of 
fairness and compassion give this measure their unanimous support.
  I am on the floor today to introduce legislation that will bring much 
needed fairness to hundreds of our citizens. This bill, the Ricky Ray 
Fairness Act of 1999 will finally include those people, other than 
hemophiliacs, who were infected with HIV and contracted AIDS through 
HIV contaminated blood products or tissues.
  The blood crisis of the 1980s resulted in the HIV infection of 
thousands of Americans who trusted that the blood or blood product with 
which they were treated was safe. The tragedy of the blood supply's 
contamination has brought unbearable pain to families all over the 
country. I have heard from dozens over the past months. These are 
people like any of us--like our children and our grandchildren--who 
went to hospitals for standard procedures, emergency care, or were 
transfused due to complications in childbirth. Many children and adults 
were secondarily infected: children through childbirth or HIV-infected 
breast milk and adults through their spouses. Lives were lost and 
futures were ruined. Not only were there physical and emotional costs, 
but there exists a tremendous drain on personal finances as a result of 
lost income and extreme medical expenses. In the minds of these and in 
the minds of members who advocated for the Ricky Ray bill, the federal 
government played the determining role in the tragedy.
  Mr President, these people were infected with HIV because the federal 
government failed to protect the blood supply during the mid-1980s when 
it did not use its regulatory authority to implement a wide range of 
blood and blood-donor screening options recommended by the Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention. Had the federal government taken the 
recommendations of the CDC, thousands of American men, women and 
children would not have contracted AIDS through HIV-contaminated blood 
and blood products.
  Sadly, and unfairly, the Ricky Ray Hemophilia Relief Fund Act as 
passed last year does not include all victims of the blood supply 
crisis. I feel strongly that the Act must be amended to include 
compensation for not only hemophiliacs, but also people who received a 
blood transfusion or blood product in the course of medical treatment. 
Though it was right for us to pass the Ricky Ray Act last year, it 
remains an inequity and a tragedy that the federal government did so 
without including victims of transfusion-associated AIDS.
  Unlike a few individuals, most people infected with HIV through blood 
and blood products have been unable to track the source of their 
infection; nor have they been able to obtain some judicial relief 
through the courts. The community hit by this tragedy has found it 
nearly impossible to make recovery through the courts because of blood 
shield laws in most states that raise the burden of proof for product 
liability claims for blood and blood products. In addition, all States 
have statutes of limitations that prohibit litigation if the suit was 
not filed within a certain period of time.
  I am introducing today what can be the final chapter in our Country's 
responsibility for not adequately protecting the blood supply during 
the 1980s. The Ricky Ray Fairness Act of 1999 provides compassionate 
payments to those infected with HIV contaminated blood, blood 
components, or human tissues. While the change to include transfusion 
cases increases the cost of this bill, many have already noted that 
this bill is not about money, it's about fairness. I urge my colleagues 
to join me in recognizing the terrible tragedy the blood supply crisis 
of the 1980s cast upon all of its victims.
                                 ______