[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 24530-24531]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



          INCREASING THE FEDERAL RESPONSE TO THE AIDS EPIDEMIC

  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, we are now entering the third decade of the 
AIDS epidemic and while we have made some progress in fighting this 
devastating disease, our federal response is still lacking.
  More than 400,000 people have died of complications associated with 
acquired immunodeficiency syndrome since 1981. Last year, more than 
54,000 new cases of AIDS were reported in this country. This trend is 
staggering and belies the misperception that somehow the AIDS epidemic 
in this country or abroad has abated. While it is true that therapeutic 
and treatment breakthroughs have led to longer and more productive 
fulfilling lives for those living with HIV, and that the death rate 
from AIDS has fallen in recent years, the fact remains that this 
epidemic has no cure and the rate of new infections has not slowed.
  But these are days of great hope, Mr. President, in the fight against 
AIDS. During the years of inaction by the Reagan and Bush 
Administrations during the 1980s, we entered the second decade of the 
epidemic on a much different note: treatments were few, toxic and 
largely ineffective; training of physicians in the care of patients 
with HIV was incomplete, uneven and erratic; discrimination and abuse 
of people living with AIDS in housing, employment and medical care was 
rampant and abhorrent. It was difficult to have much hope as we entered 
the 1990s.
  But this decade has seen great promise. We have made significant 
strides. No longer an immediate death sentence, AIDS has lost some--but 
certainly not all--of its social stigma. In that dark dawn of the 
epidemic, Mr. President, who would have believed that we would see a 
decade in which two Miss Americas would be AIDS activists, touring the 
country and speaking out on AIDS prevention and care? In the early 
1980s, who would have believed that we would have an Office of AIDS 
Research at the National Institutes of Health, that funding for the 
Ryan White program would increase by 260 percent, or that funding for 
AIDS research would increase by 67 percent?
  And yet, Mr. President, the rumbling of the epidemic has not been 
stilled. In the early 1980s, who would have believed that some African 
countries would have 25 or 35 percent infection rates, or that an 
entire generation of gay men in the United States would be lost? Who 
would have believed that infection rates would continue at staggering 
paces at the same time leading voices would declare the epidemic over? 
Have we truly become victims of our own success?
  I certainly hope not, for as Tony Kushner wrote at the end of his 
monumental play, Angels in America, ``great work remains to be done.''
  Until we have an AIDS-free day in America, I will not become 
complacent. As ranking member of the Housing subcommittee, I know that 
great work remains to be done in finding shelter for people living with 
AIDS. I was pleased that my colleague from Missouri, Senator Bond, and 
my friend from Maryland, Senator Mikulski, were able to answer my 
request positively to increase funding by $7 million for the Housing 
Opportunities for People With AIDS program in the VA-HUD and 
Independent Agencies appropriations bill for fiscal year 2000. This 
money is crucial as people living with AIDS have a fundamental need for 
adequate and safe housing. I will continue to work with all of my 
colleagues to keep the HOPWA program sufficiently funded.
  Great work remains to be done on HIV prevention. We are lacking in 
our commitment to adequately fund the Centers for Disease Control in 
their anti-HIV efforts. Until a cure is found, we must ensure that the 
federal government issues information widely which is accurate, blunt 
and unequivocal. Prevention efforts work, Mr. President. I have seen 
the work of the AIDS Action Committee in Boston and I can tell you that 
their innovative programs are working to slow the spread of AIDS. 
Unlike the increase in funding which the National Institutes of Health 
has received, the CDC's prevention efforts have remained at roughly the 
same level in the past few years. It was my hope that the appropriators 
would have recognized the unmet needs related to HIV prevention in this 
country and it is my fear that the failure to keep pace with that need 
portends a disaster.
  For example, in this legislation as in other legislation this year, 
we again were subjected to the perennial ill-informed debate on the 
issue of needle exchange. I am dismayed that the

[[Page 24531]]

Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill will include language which 
deprives the Secretary of Health and Human Services from using her 
discretion based on science and empirical academic study to determine 
if needle exchange programs reduce the transmission of HIV without 
encouraging illicit drug abuse. This is bad public policy, when 
Senators act like scientists, and it is bad health policy. It is my 
hope that the conferees on this bill will restore the Secretary's 
discretion.
  Great work remains to be done in combating AIDS abroad. We are a 
failure in our policy toward Africa. Our international efforts need to 
be bolstered to assist developing countries crippled by the effects of 
HIV disease. My distinguished colleague and friend from Vermont, 
Senator Leahy, has been stalwart in raising the funding levels to fight 
AIDS abroad in the Foreign Operations appropriations bill and the 
Congress needs to follow his guidance by continuing to increase these 
levels. In addition, tomorrow I will introduce the Lifesaving Vaccine 
Technology Act of 1999 to spur research of vaccines to combat diseases 
which kill more than one million people every year, and I will have 
much more to say on this topic at that time.
  Great work remains to be done for hemophiliacs. There is perhaps no 
greater neglect by the federal government in responding to the AIDS 
epidemic than the ignoring of our hemophiliac population. On November 
11, 1998 the Ricky Ray Hemophilia Relief Act was signed into law. The 
bill, authored by the Senator from Ohio, Senator DeWine, received 
overwhelming bipartisan support, and I was proud to be an original co-
sponsor of the bill. When it passed, hemophiliacs felt their thirteen 
year battle to be compensated for the lapse in regulation of our 
nation's blood supply was over.
  In the early 1980s, it became apparent that HIV was being improperly 
screened, and HIV-tainted blood product was being distributed to 
patients across the country. At the time, there were 10,000 Americans 
suffering with hemophilia, an illness which requires regular infusions 
of blood clotting agents.
  According to the Institute of Medicine's report on HIV and the Blood 
Supply, ``meetings of the FDA's Blood Product Advisory Committee in 
January, February, July and December 1983 offered major opportunities 
to discuss, consider, and reconsider . . . and review new evidence and 
to reconsider earlier decisions, [yet] blood safety policies changed 
very little during 1983.'' In effect, the report found the FDA was at 
fault for not responding to clear evidence of transmission dangers. As 
a result, more than sixty percent of all Americans with hemophilia were 
infected with HIV through blood products contaminated by the AIDS 
virus. Currently, more than 5,000 have died and more are dying each 
day. In my office, I have been visited by courageous hemophiliacs and 
when they leave, I never know if I will ever see them again. This 
population has been decimated, Mr. President, and the personal tragedy 
is unspeakable.
  We must fully fund the Ricky Ray Relief Act. The Senate version of 
the Labor-HHS-Education bill appropriates $50 million out of the $750 
million needed to fund the Ricky Ray Trust Fund, and that is certainly 
better than the inadequate level of the other body, but it is a far cry 
from the level needed by the hemophiliac community. Members of this 
community never anticipated the one-time compensation from the trust 
fund, intended to assist with staggering medical bills and improve the 
quality of their lives, would turn out to be a pay-out to their 
estates.
  You need only to speak to some of my constituents, like Therese 
MacNeill. She will tell you, as a mom, the hardship she has experienced 
in coping with the tragedy of losing one son to AIDS and caring for 
another who is HIV-positive. Terri MacNeill will let you know in no 
uncertain terms why we must fully fund Ricky Ray to help families who 
for years were storing HIV-infected blood product in their family 
refrigerators next to the lettuce and milk, and now are struggling 
under mountains of medical bills.
  Other countries have recognized the plight of hemophiliacs who were 
infected by poorly screened blood. Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, 
Italy, and Switzerland are just some of the countries which have 
established compensation programs. Sixty Senators signed on as co-
sponsors of the legislation authorizing the establishment of the Ricky 
Ray Trust Fund. Now is the time to realize our commitment to the 
hemophiliac population on par with other countries as well as our own 
actions in authorizing the bill. I hope that when the appropriations 
conference committee meets on this bill, the funding levels for the 
Ricky Ray act are raised substantially.
  Mr. President, let me conclude by saying that I am heartened by the 
response of my friends, the distinguished Senator from Pennsylvania, 
Senator Specter, and the able Senator from Iowa, Senator Harkin, in 
crafting this legislation. They have risen to an incredible challenge 
in the funding of programs designed for AIDS care, research and 
treatment, and I remain committed to work with them during this year 
and next to finish some of the great work that remains to be done, 
especially in regard to HIV prevention programs and the Ricky Ray Trust 
Fund.

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