Congressional Record, Volume 147 Issue 76 (Tuesday, June 5, 2001)

[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 76 (Tuesday, June 5, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H2876-H2884]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

AIDS EPIDEMIC

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Issa). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 3, 2001, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez) is
recognized for 60 minutes.

General Leave

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their
remarks on the Special Orders of today.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Texas?
There was no objection.
Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, today we mark the 20th year of the AIDS
epidemic. On June 5, 1981, the Centers for Disease Control published a
morbidity and mortality weekly report on the diseases which affect
AIDS. I spoke at the rally this past Sunday.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs.
Christensen).
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman for
providing this hour for us to discuss this important issue and remember
and look back over the 20 years since the first cases of then an
unknown disease was being discovered.
The gentleman and I were fortunate today to be able to spend some
time at a symposium in Washington that was sponsored by the Kaiser
Family Foundation and the Ford Foundation to look back over those years
to see how far we have come and how far we have yet to go. I want to
take this opportunity to thank the Kaiser Foundation and the Ford
Foundation for their work, the support that they provide to research,
the support that they provide to community organizations and this
country and around the world, to address this disease.
We also heard the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) earlier
talk about the people who preceded her and we mentioned today how
fortunate we were as we came to Congress in 1997 to have the work of
the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), the work of the gentleman
from Washington (Mr. McDermott), Lou Stokes, and the gentlewoman from
California (Ms. Waters), and many, many others to build upon.
We have really seen a lot of wonderful advances in the last 20 years,
but we still have a lot more that has to be done. We have seen the
identification of what was then an unknown disease to advanced
therapies that have transformed what was a death sentence to now what
is almost a chronic disease. We have an improved quality of life for
those who have been diagnosed with HIV. They can live comfortable and
quality lives rather than just having to wait to die.
Mr. Speaker, I am going to turn this Special Order back to the
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez), and I will join him again later
at the conclusion of his comments.
Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, let me thank the gentlewoman from the
Virgin Islands. I know that from the Black Caucus the gentlewoman has
been working diligently, and as chairman of the Hispanic Caucus on
Health,

[[Page H2877]]

I want to thank her specifically for the work that she has been doing
on this issue and all issues on health, so I thank the gentlewoman. I
look forward to continued dialogue.
Let me just make a few comments. We have other fellow colleagues that
are here with us today, but I want to take the opportunity to just say
that it is hard for me to believe that it has been 20 years, and as the
sign back here says, ``Twenty Years is Enough.'' Twenty years later,
HIV/AIDS has taken the lives of close to 22 million people worldwide.
It is hard for me to also believe that 15 years ago, I was in the Texas
legislature listening to my fellow colleague denounce the spending
money on AIDS prevention because of narrow bigotry. In essence, he
would say, these people deserve it. I only mention that because thank
God that we have really come a long way from that perspective, and I am
proud to stand here today and see how far we have come, although we
have a lot more to do.
I would like to recognize the countless individuals and organizations
that are out there working on issues such as research on AIDS trends
that affects new drugs, the advocacy groups that are out there working,
the advocacy groups that are working for children with AIDS, the
foundation activities that are raising awareness in the area of AIDS,
the key components and the global effort in the area of AIDS. The
Hispanic Caucus, the Black Caucus and the Asian Pacific American Caucus
are working together to find solutions to specific communities of color
also. As chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Task Force on
Health, I have had the opportunity to work with many of my friends and
colleagues on efforts to increase resources for AIDS prevention,
education, and treatment. It affects the lives of the rich, the poor,
the famous, the not-so-famous, the blacks, the browns, the whites. It
affects all of us.

Let me take this opportunity, since we have some of our colleagues
here today, to recognize them. We have two people from California, and
I want to take the pleasure of recognizing the gentlewoman from
California (Ms. Sanchez), who also sits with me on the Committee on
Armed Services. I thank the gentlewoman for being here this evening,
and I yield to the gentlewoman.
Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr.
Rodriguez), my fellow caucus member from Texas.
Mr. Speaker, AIDS is something that tends to be pretty foreign to
people until it touches someone in your family. In my particular case,
in 1990 I had a cousin, a very close cousin, who died of AIDS. This was
a cousin that I used to visit every Sunday. In a Hispanic family we
tend to be very, very close; and your cousins tend to be the friends
that you have. The family is so large, you never have to go outside of
the family to find playmates and people that you hang out with.
This particular cousin used to do my hair at his own company, at his
own salon. He was a successful businessman, not too far away from where
I lived; and at one point he got sick. As AIDS progressed with him, I
and many of the members of my family got to understand what it was like
then to live under those conditions, and then for a society that really
did not understand what HIV and what AIDS was about. You would think
that in a Hispanic culture, we are a little afraid of things like this,
we do not like to talk about these things, but one of the great things
that I think my cousin had was an ability to come together and to help
with the situation.
I had a cousin who was an outstanding member, who was a great family
person but, at the same time, was a business owner. I saw him lose his
business because he could not work; and because he could not work, he
lost the business. I saw him lose his home. I saw him go, and we would
take him to the hospital sometimes with some affliction, and I saw
doctors who were afraid to treat him or would turn him down to treat
him. I saw the red tape and what it took to get him into a hospital, to
get him back on his feet. I saw a society that did not understand what
was happening and refused to put the money and refused to treat
somebody who had AIDS. I thought, you know, in that last year of his
life, here is someone who is dying, and the thing that they should have
most intact is a dignity about life. I saw a world that did not
understand and did not want to treat him with dignity. That was in
1990.
Now, I am glad to report that just this past month, we in Orange
County cut the ribbon on Emanual House, a living house for 21 people
who will come and live in an environment that will be a positive
environment for those who have HIV or have AIDS. It is a great
collaborative effort by homebuilders and by mercy housing and by one of
the priesthoods there, Catholic priesthood in Orange County, to build
this home in a neighborhood, in a family neighborhood in Santa Ana who
worked with us and who welcome these new residents who will come to
this beautiful, beautiful home called Emanual House.

{time} 2115

I have seen a change in the funding levels. I have seen a change in
the breakthroughs that we have had for medicine for AIDS. I have seen
even a change over the years in the walk for AIDS that happened this
past Sunday in Orange County, where we had over 15,000 people
participate to walk on Sunday morning, and where we raised almost $1
million in Orange County, California, for research and for help on
AIDS, to help these people who lose their jobs, who lose their homes,
many who still lose their families. It is a very positive thing.
Probably the most negative thing that I have seen in the last few
years with respect to HIV and AIDS is that the infection is growing
highest and at an alarming rate in the Hispanic community across the
Nation. In particular, women who believe they are in a monogamous
relationship, i.e., they are married and they believe that they are
okay, are the ones that we are seeing most often the rate going up in
the rate of HIV, the HIV disease.
So we have more to do. We need to get information out, and many of
the people who work on HIV and AIDS in Orange County are working on
campaigns to get the information out to our minority communities.
I thank my colleague, the gentleman from Texas, for taking this hour.
I think this is a very important milestone, but there is so much more
to do still. I thank the gentleman.
Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from California
for her comments. There is no doubt this is an area and issue that
confronts our community.
The gentlewoman mentioned disproportionately how it hits the Hispanic
population. There is no doubt that we represent 13 percent of the
population, yet we represent more than 20 percent of the new cases. So
I want to thank the gentlewoman for being here tonight.
I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey), and I thank
the gentlewoman for being here tonight.
Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for
yielding to me, and for putting this all together. He has done us all a
great favor this evening.
Mr. Speaker, 20 years ago, HIV and AIDS was thought to affect only
gay, white men. Time has proved otherwise. We now know that HIV and
AIDS does not discriminate. It reaches out to men, women, and children
of all ages in every social and economic group of every race and in
every country in the world.
I live in Petaluma, California. A good friend of mine was the first
woman to die of AIDS in Sonoma County 10 years ago. I can remember when
the subject of AIDS first came up 10 years before that. She and I had
lunch together, and we were sitting and talking, and trying to figure
out actually what this disease was and how to prevent it, and why it
was spreading so rapidly around the country.
Twenty years ago, people afflicted with HIV-AIDS had little or no
chance to enjoy a good quality of life. Thankfully, scientific research
has led to successful life-prolonging therapies, but the epidemic is
far, far from over.
I am proud to represent a district that is committed to fighting the
spread of the HIV virus. Marin and Sonoma Counties, the two counties
just north of San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge, have one of
the Nation's highest incidences of HIV/

[[Page H2878]]

AIDS. But these counties provide comprehensive services for people
living with HIV/AIDS. They have consistently pushed forward aggressive
public policy initiatives such as the needle exchange programs.
The boards of supervisors in both Marin and Sonoma Counties passed
needle exchange regulations and acceptance when it was illegal in the
State of California.
Advances in treatment, coupled with effective public policy, remind
us that good things happen when government and the public health
community work together, and when education is made abundant so that
people understand what they are up against, what the challenges are,
and what prevention must be taken.
Today we must recall the lessons we have learned in the 20-year-long
fight against HIV/AIDS, and pledge to build upon that knowledge to take
us forward, not backward. The treatment of HIV/AIDS has changed, but
its fatal consequences have not.
It is time to reeducate our Nation. A new generation faces the threat
of HIV/AIDS, a generation that never knew the devastation that this
disease creates. We must not allow them to repeat the mistakes that
contributed to the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS in the first place.
Nor can individuals currently receiving HIV/AIDS therapies believe
that their medications are in any way a cure. That challenge still
awaits us. Until then, we must exercise every precaution to slow the
spread of this disease.
As we debate HIV/AIDS policy and funding, we must be motivated by the
many changes that still lie ahead. If we do, we will accomplish more in
the next 5 years than we did in the last 20 years. And Mr. Speaker, we
must, because lives depend on it.
Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from California
(Ms. Woolsey) for coming out here.
We have gotten so much interest that we have a good number of people
out here, so I want to take this opportunity to yield to the
gentlewoman from North Carolina (Mrs. Clayton).
Mrs. CLAYTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me,
and I thank my colleagues who organized this with the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Rodriguez), who chairs the Hispanic Caucus Health Task
Force, and the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen),
the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Health Brain Trust. I thank
the gentleman for organizing this very important special order on HIV
and AIDS.
Mr. Speaker, this week is the 20th anniversary of the discovery of
the virus. After 20 years, a vaccine is still not on hand, and 20 years
later, the African American population is disproportionately affected
by this virus.
Mr. Speaker, my colleagues have mentioned some of the devastating
statistics: worldwide, 36 million people are now infected, and 21.8
million have died, including 3 million last year. Each year, 5.5
million new people are infected. That figure represents more than
15,000 victims a year.
However, I wish to focus on my State of North Carolina. According to
figures from last year, North Carolina ranked 23rd among 50 States and
the District of Columbia in terms of the number of AIDS cases. Most
North Carolina HIV disease reports highlight the male population; 65.5
percent were African American, and 72.1 percent of them fell between
the ages of 30 and 39 years of age.
The statistics from my district are even more unsettling. African
Americans accounted for 87 percent of cases reported in my district in
2000. I will let the Members know that African Americans only represent
50.6 percent of my district.
I have spoken with many people who presently are suffering from HIV/
AIDS, as well as health care providers, caseworkers, representatives
from community-based organizations in my congressional district. I have
heard moving testimony about the lack of resources to adequately
address this public health crisis. There is a great need to focus on
prevention and accessible and affordable treatment.
According to a recent article in the New York Times, while AIDS no
longer makes the Federal government's list of the 15 leading causes of
death in the United States, it is the leading cause among African
Americans ages 25 through 35. HIV infections are rising more among
heterosexual women, particularly in the rural south, where Federal
health officials say an influx of crack and the sex-for-drug trade is
fueling the spread of the virus.
Treatment and prevention comes in all forms as fighting this disease
takes a comprehensive approach. We know that HIV/AIDS has affected many
people through the practice of those addicted to drugs exchanging used
needles. We need to address the drug addiction problem. We need to
focus on prevention of drugs. We need to have a needle exchange program
that makes sense.
We need to give all American a healthy start so that risky behavior
such as drug use and abuse and prostitution can be decreased. A
decrease in this unhealthy and risky behavior can help prevent the
spread of HIV and AIDS, and other STDs will also be diminished.
In the same article mentioned earlier, it stated that AIDS in this
country is increasingly an epidemic of the poor, which means it is
increasingly an epidemic of minorities. African Americans, who make up
just 13 percent of the population, now account for more than one-half;
13 percent, but one-half of all HIV infections.
We need to get our churches involved. In the African American
community, the church is the focal point. We need to reach out to our
citizens, regardless of how we feel about their sexual orientation or
their background. Our churches need to employ a nonjudgmental approach
so that it is easy for people in need to seek assistance from the
church community. We cannot shut our doors because someone does
something or looks in a certain way. Our churches should and must be in
the vanguard in addressing this issue.
Twenty years after AIDS, we know that this is no longer a gay
disease. We know it is not a disease that just affects an urban
population. As the figures that I mentioned about my district in North
Carolina demonstrate, this disease is affecting rural citizens in
record rates without the appropriate infrastructure or resources to
address it, particularly among African Americans.
I am hopeful that before the onset of a 25th anniversary of this
devastating disease, a vaccine will be available and accessible. I am
hoping that before the 25th anniversary occurs, the number of the newly
affected will be greatly diminished. I am hopeful before the 25th
anniversary occurs also that the worldwide pandemic of HIV/AIDS will
have a death blow to far less individuals. We have already lost 21
million people to this pandemic. I am hopeful that good news indeed is
on the horizon. I thank the gentleman for bringing this to the
attention of the American people.
Mr. RODRIGUEZ. I thank the gentlewoman from North Carolina for being
here tonight, and I thank her for the words she has said. As she talked
about the fact that we have reached a point where it impacts a whole
bunch of other people, one of the worst statistics to see is that
minority children make up an astonishing 82 percent of the new AIDS
cases. These are our children that are being hard hit.
I yield to the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs.
Christensen).
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for
yielding to me. It is great to see how many people are coming out to
address this issue. It is the tip of the iceberg for the real concern
and commitment that many of our colleagues, particularly those in both
the Hispanic and Black Caucus, have to addressing this disease in our
communities and really around the world.
I wanted to make mention of some of the things that have been said.
The gentlewoman from California (Ms. Sanchez) talked about her family
member. In these 20 years that have passed since the first cases were
reported, there is hardly a family that has not been touched by this
disease.
In those 20 years, over 750,000 persons have been diagnosed and
reported with AIDS, and about half a million have died. These are all
people who are brothers, sisters, wives, mothers. We cannot forget, as
we look at the large numbers, that these are human beings that all have
people who care about

[[Page H2879]]

them and love them, and are affected when they are infected.
The gentlewoman from North Carolina (Mrs. Clayton) talked about our
rural areas. That is an area that needs some special attention, because
a lot of the programs that we do have and have brought about in these
20 years address the larger urban areas, but our rural areas are left
out. That is a challenge for us as we go into the next decade.
The gentlewoman mentioned the needle exchange. We talked about the
fact that we went to the Kaiser Family Foundation and Ford Foundation
symposium today, and one of the things that they report in their survey
is that more than 58 percent of the people that they surveyed, a good
statistical component that represents the American public, 58 percent
supported needle exchange programs.

{time} 2130

Because we understand that it does prevent the spread of AIDS;
therefore it prevents sickness and death. Many studies have proven, I
think, conclusively that it does not increase the tendency to drug
abuse, and indeed it brings people into treatment further.
So I turn it back over to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez).
Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, nobody knows this issue better than the
gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen), being a
practitioner also. I want to thank her for her hard work.
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, as a social worker, the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Rodriguez) has had a lot of experience with it as well. That
is why we are glad to be able to collaborate with him on these and
other health care issues.
Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, we are looking forward to working with
the gentlewoman.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Houston, Texas (Ms.
Jackson-Lee). She is a dynamic person, always on the issues, and we
thank her for being here tonight.
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, let me thank the gentleman
from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez) for his leadership, leadership of being
chair of the Hispanic Caucus Health Committee, the work he has done. We
have done work together on immunization and children's health issues. I
thank the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen) who
chairs the Congressional Black Caucus Task Force on Health.
It is important that we are here today. But I imagine that all of us
would wish that we were not. I think, as evidenced by our message ``20
years of AIDS is enough'', it points to the fact that we are only here
to be able to highlight the need for greater focus and emphasis and
recognition that it is not my problem, it is our problem. It is not his
problem or her problem, it is our problem.
I will try to focus on where do we go from here and some of the
things and the efforts that we have made collaboratively together. I am
very proud to have joined the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee),
one of the speakers that will come forward, and those of us on the
floor of the House as we worked on issues like debt relief and also the
Marshall plan.
But as we have done that, we are continuing to work and to talk about
questions of prescription drugs or the issue of being able to provide
generic drugs in a way that all people can have access to them.
Particularly, I want to note that this is a worldwide issue. Though
we have highlighted the continent of Africa, knowing that 40 million
children by 2005 will be orphaned by those who are HIV infected and
will have died in sub-Sahara Africa, I also realize that this disease
is spreading to India, it is spreading to China, some of the largest
population centers in the world. If we were to take it back home, it is
particularly devastating to note that women are the highest numbers of
HIV infected, particularly African-American women and Latino women.
It is important to note that States where one would not think or
would possibly begin to want to isolate States, so that is an urban
problem versus a rural problem, there are over 50,000 reported AIDS
cases in Texas alone. Over half of these are among blacks and Hispanics
or over 50 percent of those with AIDS.
In my district in particular in Texas, African Americans represent a
staggering 64 percent reportable HIV infections and 57 percent of the
total cases diagnosed in 2000. Even more frightening statistics is the
fact that 84 percent of the adolescents with reportable HIV infection
are African American.
Women represent an estimated 30 percent of new HIV infections in the
United States and a growing share of newly reported AIDS cases each
year. In 1986, women accounted for 67 percent of the new AIDS cases. By
1999, women accounted for nearly a quarter of all AIDS cases in this
country. Worldwide, women account for 42 percent of all AIDS cases
which is nearly triple the number 10 years ago. Although African
Americans and Latinos represent less than a fourth of all women in the
United States, they account for more than a third of all reported AIDS
cases. Women in the 18th district of Texas and throughout Texas have
not escaped the epidemic. The percentage of Texas women with AIDS
increased from 14.3 percent to 15.4 percent just between 1997 and 1999.
It is important just to lay these particular issues on the table
because I hope that, as we emphasize 20 years of AIDS is enough, again
I say that we focus on where do we go in the future.
What we have tried to do, Mr. Speaker, is to talk about prevention
and to break down the barriers that keep people from understanding what
AIDS is and how it can be prevented.
So in my community, let me applaud a number of initiatives by Magic
102, a radio station. With their general manager, we have created a
whole series of sessions or fares or programs or efforts throughout the
community to focus on testing, HIV testing. Have you been tested?
Therefore we are going around the community focusing on, encouraging
people to be tested privately, of course; and we are doing that in
conjunction with the City of Houston health department.

I want to thank Dr. Kendricks and Marilee P. Brown for acknowledging
and declaring Houston as an emergency center, an emergency crisis, if
you will, regarding AIDS about a year ago. Out of that, the
consciousness of people in the community have been raised up to begin
to talk about it in the religious community as well as throughout the
community.
Our churches are engaged in talking about how do we prevent the
infection of HIV/AIDS, because we are finding that it is being promoted
or it is being encouraged by economic, cultural, legal and religious
factors where people have no control of it.
About a quarter of all women report postponing medical care due to
barriers such as sickness or lack of transportation or lack of health
care. It is tragic to know that research, prevention efforts,
education, substance abuse treatment, and prevention programs need to
be targeted towards women, especially African-American and Hispanic
women. So we need culturally sensitive programs. The same thing in
India and China as it moves throughout the world, culturally sensitive
programs.
When we went to Africa, one of the issues that we discussed in Zambia
and Uganda was programs that related to the culture of Africans so that
they would be eager to come and find out information.
When I was in Botswana just a few weeks ago, we found a center where
a gentleman living with HIV/AIDS was the chief spokesperson and
outreach coordinator. He was able to speak to his fellow Botswanans
about the importance of prevention, but also testing and removing the
shackles and the barriers from that. Clearly, much remains to be done
to fight the disease, and many look to African-American leaders in
Congress for this guidance.
A New York Times columnist recently demanded that the so-called
leaders of the black community, the politicians, the heads of civil
rights organizations, the preachers step forward and say in thundering
tones that it is time to bring an end to this destructive behavior.
Let me answer that by saying we are all collectively standing up in
the fight. What we must do is collaborate with government to be able to
have the resources and create the research and have the CDC continue to
do its work along with the NIH on finding a cure for AIDS.
Our voices have risen, and we need to be listened to. In this
Congress, as we

[[Page H2880]]

begin to appropriate dollars, as we appropriate the Ryan White
treatment dollars, for all of us, we must ensure that those dollars
will reach out to culturally sensitive organizations such as the Donald
Watkins organization in Houston that responds to the needs of our
particular cultural communities along with all of our others.
Let me close by mentioning a gentleman in my community that I pay
tribute to as a symbol of someone who has lived with AIDS and fights it
every day. David Swem in Houston, who is at 6 feet tall and a mere
122\1/2\ pounds has been able to fight AIDS, and he has been fighting
it since his diagnosis in 1987 by taking 50 pills per day. That is
overwhelming that that is what has to happen for people who are living
with AIDS. That is why it is so very important for prevention and so
very important ultimately to find a cure.
Might I also say, as noted by the gentlewoman from North Carolina
(Mrs. Clayton), as chair of the Congressional Children's Caucus, there
is nothing more devastating than an HIV-infected child or a child that
has full-blown AIDS.
Nkosi Johnson in South Africa, a young man that we got to know some 2
years or so ago, recently died just a week or so ago, born with HIV
from an HIV mother, transmitted through that HIV mother who could not
take care of him, adopted by a loving South African woman.
Nkosi became the symbol of a precocious child who wanted to stand up
and tell the world that he deserved dignity although he lived with
full-blown AIDS. Children such as Nkosi should be enjoying a life
filled with joy and laughter and happiness. Mandela said in a recent
statement, ``On a frightening scale, HIV/AIDS is replacing that joy,
laughter and happiness with paralyzing pain.''
Nkosi collapsed with brain damage and viral infections. But before
that, in his short life, he contested the policies that kept HIV-
infected children out of public schools in South Africa. He talked
about his infection, challenging people to reexamine their fear of
those inflicted with AIDS. He spoke at the World AIDS Conference in
South Africa, woke our collective consciouses up, and began to
acknowledge that it was important to be able to fight this disease in
dignity.
To Nkosi Johnson, in his loss, a South African child but a child of
the world, I believe that it should be our tribute tonight that 20
years of HIV/AIDS, full-blown AIDS is enough.
So to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez) and the gentlewoman
from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen), might I say that tonight,
as we speak in acknowledgment of 20 years of HIV infection in this
country and discovery of the AIDS virus, that we also commit ourselves,
if we will, to continued legislative initiatives that collectively
fights this devastating disease.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today on an occasion that perhaps none of us
foresaw in 1981 and certainly none of us welcomes now--the 20th year of
the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Instead of the eradication of the disease, we
continue to face 40,000 new infections per year, an increase in the
disease among women, an infection rate at plague proportions in Africa
and a possible upswing in the disease among gay men. It has left behind
people such as David Swem at Houston, who at 6 feet and a mere 122\1/2\
pounds, has been able to fight AIDs since his diagnosis in 1987 by
taking 50 pills per day. But he has lost about 300 friends to the
disease. I will continue to cry out about this disease until it no
longer exists.
More people have died from HIV/AIDs over the last twenty years than
from any other disease in history--21.8 million people. In this country
we have been able to slow the rate of AIDS' deaths, but the disease is
at crisis proportions in sub-Saharan Africa, where four-fifths of those
deaths have occurred--an average of one death every eight seconds. The
Houston Chronicle reports that 95 percent of all AIDS cases are in the
developing world, and that this strain of AIDS could cause a drastic
explosion if it jumps to the Western world. More than 70 percent of all
people living with the disease, or 25.3 million HIV-positive
individuals, live in Africa. Over 10 percent of the population is
infected in sixteen African nations. The U.S. Census Bureau calculates
that by 2010, average life expectancy will be reduced by 40 years in
Zimbabwe and Botswana, and in South Africa by 30 years. The disease
destabilizes these nations by decimating its workforce, destroying any
economic prosperity, depleting its military and peacekeeping forces and
leaving thousands of orphans.
The epidemic is not limited to Africa. Indeed, the fastest growing
front of the epidemic is now in Russia, where the number of new
infections last year exceeded the total from all previous years
combined. In 2000, the number of Russians living with HIV/AIDS
skyrocketed from 130,000 to 300,000.
The statistics are alarming in this country as well. In its June 1,
2001 report, the CDC noted that AIDS in the United States remains
primarily an epidemic affecting gay men and racial and ethic
minorities. Rates are high among minorities because factors such as
high poverty rates, unemployment, and lack off access to health care
form barriers to HIV testing, diagnosis and treatment. The CDC study
also noted the alarming figure of an infection rate of 14 percent of
young black gay or bisexual men, based on a study in seven cities.
There are over 50,000 reported AIDS cases in Texas alone, and over
half of these are among blacks and Hispanics are over 50 percent of
those with AIDS. In my district in Texas, African Americans represent a
staggering 64 percent of reportable HIV infections and 57 percent of
the total cases diagnosed in 2000. An even more frightening statistic
is the fact that 84 percent of the adolescents with reportable HIV
infection are African-American.
Women represent an estimated 30 percent of new HIV infections in the
United States and a growing share of newly reported AIDS cases each
year. In 1986, women accounted for 7 percent of new AIDS cases. By
1999, women accounted for nearly a quarter of all new AIDS cases in
this country. Worldwide, women account for 42 percent of all AIDS
cases, which is nearly triple the number ten years ago.
African Americans have been hardest hit women. Latinas have also been
heavily affected. Although African Americans and Latinas represent less
than a fourth of all women in the U.S., they account for more than a
third of all reported AIDS cases.
Women in the 18th District of Texas, and throughout Texas, have not
escaped this epidemic. The percentage of Texas women with AIDS has
increased from 14.3 percent to 15.4 percent just between 1997 and 1999,
1999 being the last full year for which data is available. In my
district, currently about 27 percent of new HIV infections are among
African-American women. A staggering 82 percent of all HIV infections
among women were in the African-American community. Similarly, 79
percent of the reported AIDS cases in women were among African-American
women.
Despite these steady increases in HIV/AIDS cases among both women and
children, funding for these groups has decreased. In FY1999, women and
youth received 2.87 million in funding via Title IV of the Ryan White
CARE act, and 2.72 million in FY2000.
Many factors exacerbate women's risk of HIV infection. Many women,
particularly in areas such as sub-Saharan Africa, are especially
vulnerable to HIV infection because economic, cultural, legal or
religious factors may limit control over their lives and their ability
to protect themselves from infection, or to gain access to treatment.
About a quarter of all women report postponing medical care due to
barriers such as sickness or lack of transportation.
What more needs to be done? Research, prevention efforts and
education and substance abuse treatment and prevention programs must be
targeted towards women, especially in the African-American and Hispanic
communities. These programs should include research into female-
controlled barrier methods, prevention efforts targeting young women,
early comprehensive sex education and substance abuse treatment and
prevention programs targeted to women.
We can also take an example from places such as the Thomas Street
Clinic in Houston, the nation's first freestanding HIV/AIDS treatment
facility. Thomas Street Clinic provides patients with access to a full
range of services, including medical services, counseling, housing, job
placement assistance and child care. This clinic is a model for our
nation, particularly for providers in disadvantaged, urban and minority
areas.
Clearly, much remains to be done to fight the disease, and many look
to African American leaders in Congress for this guidance.
I am here to say that we are here, and we are pleading for an end to
behaviors that lead to HIV/AIDS, for better health care, for more
funding for research, treatment and prevention and for desperately
needed social services for those whose lives have been upended by the
infection. Congress cannot fight this disease alone, but we are firmly
committed to the battle.
Mr. Speaker, I include the following article for the Record as
follows:
[From the Washington Post, June 2, 2001]

Nkosi Johnson, 12, Dies; S. African AIDS Activist

Boy Born With HIV Urged Openness

(By Susanna Loof)

Johannesburg.--Nkosi Johnson, who was born with HIV and
became an outspoken

[[Page H2881]]

champion of others infected with the AIDs virus, died Friday
of complications of the disease he battled for all 12 of his
years.
Nkosi was praised for his openness about his infection in a
country where people suspected of carrying the AIDS virus
often are shunned by their families and chased from their
communities. Former South African president Nelson Mandela
called him an ``icon of the struggle for life.''
``Children, such as Nkosi Johnson, should be enjoying a
life filled with joy and laughter and happiness,'' Mandela
said in a recent statement. ``On a frightening scale, HIV/
AIDS is replacing that joy, laughter and happiness with
paralyzing pain and trauma.''
Nkosi collapsed in December with brain damage and viral
infections. His foster mother, Gail Johnson, said he died
peacefully in his sleep in the morning.
``It is a great pity that this young man has died. He was
very bold,'' Mandela said Friday.
During his short life, Nkosi successfully contested the
policies that kept HIV-infected children out of public
schools. He talked about his infection, challenging people to
reexamine their fear of those afflicted with AIDS.
``He had an awareness of the threat to his life and the
importance of his life in lessening the threat to other
people with AIDS,'' Constitutional Court Justice Edwin
Cameron, who is also infected with the virus, told the
Associated Press in January.
Parliament passed motions Friday expessing regret and
sadness at Nkosi's death, and the Congress of South African
Trade Unions said Nkosi ``inspired all people suffering from
the disease.''
Nkosi was born Feb. 4, 1989, with the virus that causes
AIDS. His mother could not afford to bring him up, and
Johnson became his foster mother when he was 2. Nkosi's
mother died of AIDS-related diseases in 1997.
That same year, Johson and Nkosi successfully battled to
force a public primary school to admit him. The fight led to
a policy forbidding schools to discriminate against HIV-
positive children and to guidelines for how schools should
treat infected pupils.
Nkosi became internationally known with a speech at the
opening of the 13th International AIDS conference last July
in Durban, South Africa, in which he asked that AIDS
sufferers no longer be stigmatized.
Nkosi helped raise money for Nkosi's Haven, a Johannesburg
Shelter for HIV-positive women and their children. He was
crushed when a 3-month-old baby his foster mother cared for
died of AIDS-related illnesses.
``He hated seeing sick babies and sick children,'' Johnson
said.
The experience led to his speech at the AIDS conference,
where he urged the South African Government to start
providing HIV-positive pregnant women with drugs to reduce
the risk of transmission of the virus during childbirth.
About 200 HIV-positive children are born in South Africa each
day, but most die before they reach school age.
A year later, the government is still studying proposals to
use the drugs.
Johnson said Nkosi did more for AIDS sufferers in South
Africa than anyone else.
``Nkosi wanted people to know that infected people, and
especially children, deserve everything in the world,'' she
said. ``His legacy is that we will care for them.''

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank very much the gentlewoman from
Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee). I want to thank her also because I think she
mentioned some real key issues. One of them deals with cultural
sensitivity.
I recall back when we had some testimony regarding AIDS, one of the
things that was mentioned by one of the doctors was that she had a
particular client that was told, and only knew Spanish, and was told
that she was positive. She understood that as--(the gentleman from
Texas spoke in Spanish). She went ahead and had children. One of her
children would up with AIDS. The importance of cultural sensitivity and
language understanding I think is key.
I want to thank the gentlewoman from Texas for the other comments
that she made. One of the key things I think that is important also is
to understand that this is devastating throughout all our communities,
not only in this country, but throughout the world when we look at sub-
Sahara Africa, when we look at the province in China, when we look at
Brazil, when we look at the border in Mexico.
So it is a disease, it is a world disease. It is a disease that we
need to go fight it wherever it is and that applies to all the
infectious diseases, and that is very important.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) who
is here with us, and we continue to get people that are coming in. I am
real pleased to see the number.
Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to join my colleagues to
acknowledge the 20th anniversary of the first HIV/AIDS diagnosis in the
United States. I first want to thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr.
Rodriguez), my fellow social worker, and the gentlewoman from the
Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen), our physician, who is leading this
very valiant effort on behalf of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and
the Congressional Black Caucus, because I believe in unity that we will
win. So I am very sober tonight and very humbled by the joint efforts
that we are mounting. I want to thank them for their leadership in
this.
Twenty years ago, the world learned about a new disease. All that was
known then was that this disease destroyed the human immune system, and
its ultimate outcome was unknown. Unfortunately, because this disease
emerged in the United States primarily in the gay community, very
little was done to curb the rate of new infections because, quite
frankly, of political policies during the Ronald Reagan era. That is
when we began to really wonder about this disease. But we did not do
much then. We put our head in the sand.
Since then, we have learned that this disease could be transmitted
through exposure to HIV-infected blood. We learned that transmissions
were occurring through unprotected sex with HIV-infected partners. We
learned that transmissions were occurring through blood transfusions
where HIV-tainted blood products were used. We learned that exposure to
HIV was occurring through shared needles and intravenous drug use. We
learned that in the United States, poor minority communities were at a
greater risk for new HIV infections than the white community.

{time} 2145

Ms. LEE. And we learned that this disease was a global pandemic. It
is disproportionately affecting people of color, Latinos, African
Americans. It is devastating the continent of Africa, the Caribbean,
Latin America, and it is a ticking time bomb in many developing
countries.
The most important lesson we have learned is that HIV can be
prevented and it starts with breaking the silence. And once again I
want to commend my colleagues for helping us do that once again tonight
on the floor of Congress.
Now, in my district in Alameda County, California, HIV/AIDS has
disproportionately affected the African American community. While the
number of new diagnoses for virtually every segment of the population
was declining, it was rapidly moving in the opposite direction for
African Americans in Alameda County and also for the Latino community.
According to data provided by the Alameda Department of Health and
Human Services in 1998, nearly 60 percent of the new HIV infections
were occurring among African Americans, even though African Americans
account for only 18 percent of the county's population. Of the new
infections in Alameda County, a growing number of infections are
occurring among women. Through a community-wide initiative, a state of
emergency task force was formed, and on November 4, 1998, the Alameda
County Public Health Officer declared a public health emergency on AIDS
in Alameda County's African American community.
This designation led to Alameda County's designation by the
Department of Health and Human Services as one of the 20 targeted
metropolitan statistical areas and the disposition of a crisis response
team to aid in this effort. And I would suggest to my colleagues in the
Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to
challenge your counties to declare states of emergencies, because this
is what we have on our hands and we should have nothing less than a
formally declared state of public health emergency where this pandemic
is wreaking havoc on our communities.
Also, because of this designation, several community-based
organizations and AIDS service providers in my district have been
awarded additional resources, not enough, but additional resources to
assist them in bringing our local crisis to an end. In the 3 years
since Alameda County declared a public health emergency, HIV and AIDS
prevention efforts have been widely expanded, and it is working. Some
of our community-based organizations are reporting that they are now
able to reach many highly vulnerable populations, such as sex workers,
the incarcerated populations, and youth to provide HIV and AIDS
prevention and education.

[[Page H2882]]

The Highland Hospital and the Magic Johnson AIDS Clinic have expanded
their care and treatment services, including providing lifesaving anti-
retroviral treatments to people living with AIDS that were not
receiving these treatment services because they could not afford them.
They are now receiving them, and this has happened in the last 3 years.
AIDS organizations and the county health department have been able to
step up their surveillance efforts in order to have a more clear
picture of who in Alameda County remains at high risk for contracting
AIDS.
According to the Alameda County Department of Health and Human
Services, in 1997, the risk for African Americans to contract HIV was
five times higher as compared to whites. In 2000, that number has
decreased to 4 to 1. This is slowly decreasing. And it is a positive
sign, but it is not zero yet. And that is where we want it. Increases
in funding for surveillance have showed that women account for 12
percent of all AIDS cases in Alameda County. However, what was not
known was that the incidence of transmission of AIDS through
heterosexual sex is 47 percent.
Now, this year, the administration's budget actually flat-funded our
domestic HIV and AIDS programs, including the minority health
initiative, which was led by the Congressional Black Caucus, and we put
in many hours, many years of work under the leadership of the
gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen), and we must not
let this be reversed back to the days when our heads were in the sand.
The United States must move forward, and we must not become
complacent. We must increase funding for HIV/AIDS education and
treatment programs, and we must advocate for the highest level of
funding possible to address our domestic AIDS crisis. Yes, 20 years of
AIDS is really enough. Let us wipe it out.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back and want to once again thank the
Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus for
again breaking the silence.
Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank very much the gentlewoman from
California (Ms. Lee).
Next, Mr. Speaker, I want to ask our District of Columbia
representative (Ms. Norton) to come over. I had the pleasure of being
with her on Sunday on the lawn where we had a march that came in. We
had several hundred people that came in, and it was a pleasure there
being with the gentlewoman. I know that we had a large number of people
trying to bring the news about the fact that 20 years is enough, and so
I thank her for being here tonight with us.

Ms. NORTON. Well, let me first thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr.
Rodriguez), and I want to thank my good colleague as well, the
gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen), for her
leadership in bringing to the attention of the Congress and of bringing
our two caucuses together to focus on where AIDS has spread and the
changing face and color of AIDS.
I want to thank the gentleman from Texas especially for being at the
Sunday 20-year celebration, because I think his speaking and my
speaking made the point we are trying to make here, and that is that
this disease has changed radically in 20 years and we are here this
evening to make that point. I appreciate that there will be other
Members, so I will, therefore, speak rapidly.
The theme of what I want to say is that after 20 years, we owe it to
the almost million who have been infected in this country, almost half
of them dead of the disease, to stress prevention over every other
issue, because this is indeed a preventable disease. Members know the
fight I have personally had in my own district just to get needle
exchange, something that every scientific organization believes is an
important way to prevent AIDS, especially since today 30 percent of the
new cases are women. That is something that is radically different from
20 years ago. And these women, of course, are getting AIDS largely
through infected drug transmission.
The fact that at a time when we need to be turning our attention to
the developing world, and many of us in the Congressional Black Caucus,
for example, have been working on AIDS in Africa because the continent
is being devoured by the disease, the whole notion that we would have
to turn back to teach some of the lessons of 20 years ago is absolutely
heartbreaking. Parts of our community, particularly Hispanics and
blacks, were never reached because they were never targeted. One of the
reasons they were not targeted is because of the opprobrium that
attended AIDS because it was seen as a homosexual disease.
In both our communities there is homophobia. And we in the
Congressional Black Caucus and in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus
have an obligation to stand against homophobia first and foremost so
that people can come out and understand that this disease can be
prevented and so that they can acknowledge the need for safe sex. But
today we are having to teach the lessons to black and Hispanic gays
that we taught, we thought, to white gays 20 years ago, because the
lessons were not learned by them.
We have one of the best, indeed a world-renowned AIDS clinic here,
the Whitman-Walker Clinic. It should be downsizing. Instead of reaching
to white gay and bisexual men it is now having to reach to black gay
and bisexual men. How heartbreaking it was to read that gay men in San
Francisco, the most conscious gay population in the world, is having an
uptick in the epidemic. These are white gays.
What this teaches us is that every 3 or 4 years we better teach the
same lesson. Because we have youngsters who were 13 then, they are 17
now, and they did not learn it then. We cannot assume that this lesson
has ever been taught.
In the Congress, my colleagues know that we have been successful with
the new treatments, and there may be some irony in that. It costs
$10,000 to $12,000 a year per person. This is a preventable disease.
That is not the best use for the health care dollars in our communities
or in our country. We must teach the lesson of prevention so the health
care dollars are not used for preventable diseases, but more often for
many who suffer in our communities and our country from diseases we
still do not understand.
We have been unwilling to get at the explicit nature of the education
that needs to take place. This is a country that does not mind talking
about sex very explicitly. We show sex, the sex act, to young children
on TV in the daytime, but we will not talk about condoms, we will not
talk about safe sex, we will not explain that to children. If we are
not explicit about sex to teens, they are not listening to us. They get
those messages from their media. They need to get it from us so that we
can prevent this preventable disease.
Our goals, as we continue the fight 20 years later, are laid out for
us. Upgrade the downgraded White House AIDS Office, search for a cure,
search for a vaccine, get prescription drugs, get needle exchange,
fight for hate crimes legislation, and for ENDA. But, above all,
remember those who died before the message of safe sex was even
understood, and remember those who died before there were protease
inhibitors.

The only way to remember them is not simply by grieving for them, and
tonight we do grieve for them, but by pledging to them that we will
move to make sure that the 20-year anniversary is the beginning of yet
another downturn in the prevalence of this disease and that we
ourselves will lead the downturn by making that message clear not only
in this Congress but in our own communities.
Again, I thank both of my colleagues for the service they have
rendered the Congress and the Nation this evening.
Mr. RODRIGUEZ. I want to thank the gentlewoman once again. It was
real exciting to be out there with those marchers that came in on
Sunday. It was a great opportunity to participate and to begin to bring
to light the fact that we still continue to fight on this issue. The
Center for Disease Control has estimated that we still have over
900,000 people in the United States that are infected with AIDS.
I also want to take this opportunity to recognize one of my
colleagues from Texas, the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic
Caucus, and to thank him for his leadership in the caucus and for his
being here tonight.
Mr. REYES. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague, the gentleman

[[Page H2883]]

from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez), chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus
Health Task Force, for all his hard work and leadership on this issue
and other issues that affect his community and minority communities all
across the country. The gentleman has demonstrated true passion and
determination in ensuring that the health needs of Hispanics and all
minorities all across the country are met.
In addition, I want to thank the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Eddie
Bernice Johnson), the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs.
Christensen), of the Congressional Black Caucus, and the gentleman from
Oregon (Mr. Wu) and the gentleman from Guam (Mr. Underwood), of the
Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, for their leadership and
collaboration that has brought us here today to reflect on the
importance of this date.
As chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, I am here to
commemorate the first reported AIDS cases in our country some 20 years
ago. On this date, we not only remember those who have died and those
whose lives are being affected by HIV/AIDS but also to continue to
raise awareness about the devastating impact this disease has had on
minority communities across the country.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, AIDS has
taken the lives of more than 21 million people around the world,
including 450,000 Americans, since it was first diagnosed in 1981. An
estimated 1 million Americans have been infected since the virus began
spreading quickly in the early 1980s through unprotected sex,
intravenous drug use, blood transfusions, and other workplace
accidents.
I have heard others say that this deadly virus does not care about
the color, age, gender or sexual preference of individuals. However
from July 1999 to June of 2000, African Americans and Hispanics have
accounted for nearly 70 percent of new HIV infections. The
disproportionate effects of the virus among Hispanics and other
minorities today continue to grow. Hispanics currently represent 20
percent of all new AIDS cases, even though we only make up 13 percent
of the United States population.

{time} 2200

Hispanics are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population and
the Centers for Disease Control report that HIV exposure risks for
U.S.-born Hispanics and Hispanics born in other countries vary greatly,
indicating a need for specifically targeted prevention efforts
consistent with the values and beliefs of these communities. These
include language-appropriate educational materials and health care
professionals who have had training on the cultural factors that can
make a difference in the treatment and prevention of this disease among
Hispanics and minorities all across the country and the world.
The Congressional Hispanic, Black, and Asian Pacific Caucuses have
responded to the need for targeted initiatives by collaborating to
establish the Minority HIV/AIDS Initiative, which addresses the
critical need for prevention and care resources in communities of
color, where the majority of new AIDS cases are occurring.
Our caucuses, along with other policymakers, health care
professionals and advocates will continue to work to increase Federal
spending for HIV/AIDS programs, such as the Minority AIDS Initiative
and Ryan White Care Act. I urge my colleagues to support the $540
million request for fiscal year 2002 for Minority HIV/AIDS Initiative
and other resources needed in the fight against this deadly disease.
These resources must be dramatically increased to keep pace with the
changing epidemic and to work toward the elimination of both the health
disparities between ethnic and racial groups and the disease all
together.
Again I thank my colleagues, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez)
and the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen).
Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr.
Reyes), who has been very instrumental in pushing for an additional
$540 million, and I thank the gentleman for taking the leadership. Both
the Hispanic and Black Caucus will be holding hearings next week on
this issue, and we will continue to move forward.
Mr. Speaker, tonight we have the distinct pleasure of having the
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi). Today alone, over 100
colleagues joined the gentlewoman in her efforts to reintroduce the
early treatment of HIV/AIDS.
We know that too many underinsured and uninsured Americans do not
have access to life-saving medications. We need to eliminate the
barriers to early drug therapy for vulnerable populations, and this
legislation would give the States the option to add HIV/AIDS to
eligible categories for Medicaid coverage. It is a very important piece
of legislation.
Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, we have talked about early intervention,
early intervention; and this legislation would enable this to happen.
Mr. Speaker, I rise as a member of the Asian Pacific American
Islander Caucus in joining my colleagues and commending the gentleman
from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez) and the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands
(Mrs. Christensen) for their leadership on this important issue.
This Special Order tonight represents the changing face of AIDS. When
I came to Congress 14 years ago this week, thousands of people had
already died in my district. It was largely a gay man's disease.
We tried to teach the rest of the country what we learned about
prevention, care, and research. Some of the legislation we are putting
forth today is bearing the fruit of that.
I join the gentleman in putting forth the $540 million request for
the Minority AIDS Initiative. I do not want anybody to think that any
minority access to AIDS is only to that pot of money. That is the entry
level to the bigger pot of money. So it opens the door to all of the
other billions of dollars that are available. It is necessary to have
that door opening, and I thank my colleagues for that.
Mr. Speaker, I did have an opportunity to speak on the floor earlier
today on this, but I wanted to commend the caucuses for their
leadership on this; and I look forward to working with them as an
appropriator and as a member of one of the caucuses, for increased
funding, for improving the quality of life, and for ending this
terrible pandemic.
Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the gentlewoman from the
Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen) if she would like to make any closing
remarks.
Mrs. Christensen. Mr. Speaker, there is one area of the world which
has been left out of this discussion tonight, and that is the
Caribbean. It is second only to Sub-Saharan Africa in terms of the
rates of HIV and AIDS. 35 percent of those infected are women compared
to 23 percent in this country, and that number is rising. It is the
leading cause of death between the ages of 15 and 44.
Mr. Speaker, of the United States territories in the Caribbean, both
the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico are in the top five in terms of
incidence for AIDS. I want to make sure that the Caribbean is not left
out of the discussion.
Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas
(Ms. Jackson-Lee).
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I congratulate both of my
colleagues for this outstanding hour. Mr. Speaker, I also want to
congratulate the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi). When people
hear numbers like 500 million, then begin to suggest exaggeration, this
is a crisis.
I think it is important to note the leadership of Dr. Satcher, the
U.S. Surgeon General, his leadership on this issue, and the Office of
Minority Health; and it will be very important that the Secretary of
Health and Human Services works with this team, the gentlewoman from
California (Ms. Pelosi) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez)
and the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands and the rest of us on
pursuing this effort in making sure that we have these funds to solve
this problem. I simply wanted to say that.
I thank my local community as well, Ernie Jackson and others for
their great leadership.
Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank all my colleagues who have
participated. It is an issue on which we all need to take ownership. It
is about all

[[Page H2884]]

of us. It has an impact on all of us. It is throughout the world. If we
have these kinds of dangerous, infectious diseases throughout the
world, we need to go after them.
Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to express my
concern about the HIV/AIDS global pandemic. While this disease
devastates the citizens of Sub-Saharan Africa, we also need to direct
our attention to the rising numbers of HIV/AIDS cases in the U.S.
Today, Mr. Speaker, in addition to accounting for more than half of the
cumulative HIV/AIDS cases, people of color also represent two thirds of
new HIV/AIDS cases reported in this country.
In the U.S., two lives are lost every hour in the war against HIV/
AIDS. Twenty years ago today, the CDC reported 5 cases of AIDS.
However, as of June 2000, there were seven hundred fifty three thousand
nine hundred and seven reported cases of AIDS in the U.S. Of these
reported cases, AIDS has claimed the lives of four hundred and thirty-
eight thousand nine hundred and seventy-five American citizens. World-
Wide the figure is twenty-two million.
The exponential growth in deaths, clearly indicate that the time for
action is now. Although technology, medicine, and research have
increased the life span of HIV positive victims, I am concerned about
the staggering number of new AIDS cases in the US. In the last decade,
the proportion of all AIDS cases reported among adult and adolescent
women more than tripled, from 7 percent in 1985 to 23 percent in 1999,
with the most dramatic increase occurring among women of color. Among
15-24-year-olds, AIDS is the 7th leading cause of death. These figures
highlight the gravity of the crisis related to HIV/AIDS and its impact
on our country.
Mr. Speaker, we are at a crucial time in this war against HIV/AIDS.
Tragically, this disease debilitates everyone it infects. The most
troubling fact is that there are few of us who have been unaffected in
some way by this disease. Today as we approach the 20th anniversary of
HIV/AIDS in the US, I would like to alert my fellow Americans of the
persistent nature of this disease. Unfortunately, it has become a
familiar part of America's culture. I believe we must reassess our
efforts and recommit ourselves to fighting this illness. We must work
collectively to promote education, prevention and treatment of HIV/
AIDS. Finally, I ask each of us to stand together to remember the
victims who have succumbed to this disease, and those individuals who
wage valiant and courageous battles to overcome their affliction.
Mr. RUSH. Mr. Speaker, today marks the twentieth anniversary of the
first reported HIV/AIDS cases in the United States. On June 5, 1981
Federal researchers reported a baffling new disease that, over the next
20 years, would claim more than 20 million lives worldwide, including
nearly 11,000 in Chicago and 40,000 in Illinois. The last 20 years have
taught this country many hard lessons, some of which we continue to
fail to grasp.
The first lesson we learned was that HIV/AIDS disproportionately
impacts minority communities and women. HIV/AIDS has become the leading
cause of death for African-American men ages 25-44. Gay black men are
contracting HIV/AIDS at rates comparable to those seen in sub-Saharan
Africa. A recent CDC study reported that 30 percent of gay black men
between ages 23 and 29 were HIV-positive. Among HIV-positive women in
Illinois, more than 80 percent are non-white--a statistic that could
not more starkly demonstrate the disproportionate havoc that HIV/AIDS
is wreaking in communities of color.
While I commend the administration for its focus on HIV/AIDS in
Africa, more must be done to treat and prevent HIV/AIDS in minority
communities in this country. The President's budget takes a step
backwards in the fight against HIV/AIDS by freezing the Ryan White AIDS
program funding. This is the first time Ryan White funding has not been
increased since the programs inception.
The second lesson we learned from the is that HIV/AIDS knows no
national boundaries. Sub-Saharan Africa is being ravaged by HIV/AIDS.
More than 25 million Africans are now living with HIV and last year
alone, 2.4 million Africans died from the disease. We must assist
Africa in its fight against HIV/AIDS or we will reap what we sow.

The third lesson HIV/AIDS taught us is that HIV/AIDS is that no group
is protected. During the early stages of the HIV/AIDS epidemic many
naively believed that HIV/AIDS was a ``gay man's disease.'' This
mistake led to a false sense of security among many who were actually
engaging in risky behaviors such as IV drug use and unprotected sex.
Unfortunately, many were infected before they realized they were at
risk. We must not make this same mistake again. Any increased incidence
of HIV/AIDS amongst a segment of the population is unacceptable.
Finally, the fourth lesson HIV/AIDS has taught us is that our
discomfort with addressing taboo issues can result in the loss of many
lives. It is clear that HIV/AIDS is transmitted through unprotected sex
and IV drug use. However, due to this country's inability to address
many of these sensitive issues, preventive efforts have suffered. We
must openly address risk factors of HIV/AIDS. To let our personal
discomfort with these subjects stymie prevention and education is
unacceptable.
We hold the keys to our fate based on these lessons of the past. If
we learn from these lessons, we can defeat HIV/AIDS. But, if we fail to
heed our mistakes, we will ultimately suffer more death and destruction
over the next twenty years. The future is ours to shape.
Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, today is a very sad day as we remember what
it was like before that time twenty years ago when our friends and
neighbors, acquaintances and co-workers began to fall gravely ill in
what should have been the prime of their lives. It is hard to remember
that time before we had parades, rallies, walks and forums specifically
devoted to raising desperately needed awareness and money to pay for
potential remedies to battle this global pandemic. In the early days it
seemed that we fought fear, discrimination, rumors and gossip almost as
much or more than the virus itself. Today, while we are still fighting
those battles, there have been great strides in the efforts to control
this insidious illness. Nevertheless, this is no time for back-slapping
as the strides that were made are falling victim to the misguided
belief--particularly among young people--that HIV/AIDS is no longer a
serious threat. Moreover, while those strides were real, the medical
miracles that were discovered were not available to everyone. The high
cost of drugs and the lack of availability of adequate quality
healthcare remain significant barriers to real progress.
As we look back over these twenty years we see an all too real
killing field of lives lost across the globe. An estimated 21.8 million
people have died as a result of this virus. Currently, 36.1 million
people are living with HIV/AIDS; almost half of those diagnosed are
women, and over 1.6 million are children. I applaud the recent efforts
of major pharmaceutical companies through the ``Accelerating Access''
and ``Secure The Future'' initiatives that offer hope to African
patients in nine countries both in terms of access to new medications
at realistic costs and the development of an infrastructure system that
can deliver care. I am also encouraged to see and hear the commitment
of this Administration to the cause of fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa.
In the United States the casualty list from HIV/AIDS is smaller yet
no less significant. According to the latest study released by the CDC,
almost 754,000 people are living with HIV/AIDS in the US: 438,795
people have died from HIV/AIDS over the past twenty years. HIV/AIDS has
become the leading cause of death for African Americans between the
ages of 25 and 44. African Americans are 10 times more likely than
whites to be diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and also 10 times more likely to
die from it.
New York State and New York City still have the largest number of
HIV/AIDS in the country and, my congressional district has the highest
incidence of new HIV/AIDS cases of any area in New York City. For
example, Brownsville has more people living with HIV/AIDS than 12
states. It has the second highest number of blacks living with HIV/AIDS
in all of New York City. In addition, East New York has the third
highest population of women living with HIV/AIDS. As much as we have
done to combat this virus, both in the US and abroad, we must do more.
That is why I am pleased that local community based organizations like
New World Creations Resource Center, Inc. are sponsoring a rally and
march, ``the AIDS walk for the Caribbean'' on July 1 to highlight the
continuing HIV/AIDS crisis in African-American and Caribbean-American
communities in New York.
I hope that in five years when we mark the next milestone in the
history of this dreaded disease, we have something positive to report.
Until that time, I urge my colleagues to join me in redoubling our
efforts to promote prevention, education and treatment for HIV/AIDS.
This is a battle that we must continue for the future of our nation and
for the world at large.

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