[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 91 (Friday, July 14, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1243-E1244]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      FOREIGN OPERATIONS, EXPORT FINANCING, AND RELATED PROGRAMS 
                        APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2001

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                       HON. DONNA MC CHRISTENSEN

                           of virgin islands

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 12, 2000

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 4811) making 
     appropriations for foreign operations, export financing, and 
     related programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 
     2001, and for other purposes.

  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the amendment of 
my colleague, the Gentlelady from California, Ms. Lee, to restore the 
funding for Global Aids assistance that was cut from the President's 
request.
  This body Mr. Chairman, invariably never ceases to amaze me. Here we 
are in the middle of a monumental life and family destroying, economy 
breaking, HIV/AIDS pandemic. Instead of increasing funding to address 
it, as the situation calls out desperately for us to do, we are 
codifying restrictions on family planning funding, slashing funding for 
debt relief to some of the same affected countries and others, and 
reducing the flow of drastically needed funds for HIV/AIDS prevention 
and treatment to a mere drip. This is a travesty.
  A recent UN report revealed that AIDS will cause early death in as 
many as one-half of the young adults in the hardest hit countries of 
southern Africa, causing unprecedented populations imbalances. In one 
country alone, Botswana, it is predicted that two thirds of that 
country's 15-year-olds will die of AIDS before age 50. But as bad as 
the impact is now, the full blow is still some years off. This loss at 
a time when men and women would be at their most productive, in 
countries that are only now beginning to come out from under the deep 
effects of colonialism and tyrannical rules, will be devastating.
  Our communities here in the U.S. are bleeding, these are 
hemorrhaging. Both crises need to be appropriately addressed, and 
addressed now.
  We are no longer in a world where any one country, nor even one 
neighborhood can labor under the impression that they are isolated. The 
devastation, and the disruptive effects of the HIV/AIDS pandemic may be 
at its very worse in far away, exotic lands, but the dire effects will 
ripple until they reach our shores. Combined with our domestic HIV/AIDS 
crisis, which also is not being adequately addressed, the bell will 
increasingly toll for us.
  We have the opportunity today to make a difference in the lives of 
our neighbors in Africa and other countries today, by supporting the 
Lee amendment. We must also resolve to apply the remedies in the 
magnitude that is needed here at home as well.
  $100 million is not a large sum. It is merely a drop in the bucket, 
against the backdrop of the enormity of the pandemic. But it is a 
start. It is seed money--an incentive for other countries, private 
corporations and foundations to join this vital effort.
  The Congressional Black Caucus and its Health Brain Trust, which I 
chair, has made HIV/AIDS our chief priority. We began here in this 
country with the call for a state of emergency and funding which has 
come to be known as the CBC Minority HIV/AIDS Initiative. But as we got 
funding and began to apply those dollars to the needs of our 
communities, we recognized that the problem was far deeper than HIV and 
AIDS. It was a problem of poor and deficient health infrastructure, it 
was and is a problem of communities beset with a myriad of social and 
economic problems.
  As we began the work of addressing all of the ills that lay beneath 
the tip of the AIDS iceberg, we also came face to face with the grim 
reality that is AIDS in Africa, and AIDS in the Caribbean, as well.

[[Page E1244]]

  And so, Mr. Chairman, what we want this body and our colleagues to 
recognize is that HIV and AIDS is a pandemic for people of color, 
around the world, including here in the United States. Achieving 
adequate prevention and treatment of HIV and AIDS in Africa and other 
parts of the world, is not that much different from combating it here. 
The social, economic, and health care infrastructure deficiencies are 
pretty much the same. And that is a real shame.
  So, I am asking this body, to support Congresswoman Lee's efforts, to 
support the CBC initiative and to fully fund it this year and for 
several years to come as needed.

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