[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 16]
[House]
[Pages 21591-21592]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               REAUTHORIZATION OF THE RYAN WHITE CARE ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen) is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, in 2 days, the Ryan White CARE Act 
will expire, and though it will continue under its current 
authorization, as this landmark and life-saving Act expires, it is 
almost as though a light expires as well, a light of life and hope for 
the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have depended upon it.
  We all know how disproportionately the HIV/AIDS epidemic has, and 
continues to, affect the African American community. In fact, since the 
beginning of this epidemic, African Americans have been hardest hit. 
This is not only due to adverse lifestyles but also largely due to the 
poor level of services, lack of insurance and the intractable poverty 
where too many people of color are trapped.

[[Page 21592]]

  As shocking as the statistics are one year, they get worse the 
following year.
  Nearly half of all people living with HIV and AIDS in the United 
States are African American, and the AIDS case rate for African 
Americans is 9.5 times that of whites.
  About six in 10 children to HIV-infected mothers are African 
American.
  Sixty-five percent of the AIDS cases among young people, 13 to 19 
years of age, are in African Americans.
  AIDS is the leading cause of death for African American women, 24 to 
34 years of age.
  This epidemic creates generation gaps in black families, leaving 
children to be reared by grandparents or other guardians, and the 
startling number of AIDS cases among teenagers indicates that this 
epidemic will undermine the very future of the African American 
community and thus undermine our Nation.
  In the African American community, this is a state of emergency and 
requires an emergency response, not this lack of attention and 
lackadaisical approach that we are receiving from the leadership. We 
should not be presiding over the expiration of this Act, which has been 
a lifeline to countless individuals and their families. We should be 
going beyond reauthorization, expanding it and ensuring that all of the 
funding is there to meet the programmatic needs.
  The Ryan White CARE Act was created to improve the quality and expand 
access to comprehensive care for people living with HIV and AIDS and 
their families. Because of the CARE Act, metropolitan regions, which 
are heavily African American, those that are most severely affected by 
HIV and AIDS receive funding to launch HIV prevention and support HIV/
AIDS care efforts.
  The CARE Act also provides funding for AIDS Drug Assistance Programs; 
early intervention services; capacity building and planning grants; 
crucial services for women, infants, children, youth and their affected 
family members; funding for AIDS Education and Training Centers; dental 
reimbursement programs; and funding for special projects on innovative 
models of HIV care and service delivery, among other services.
  As a physician who has treated people living with HIV and AIDS, I 
know well how critical these services, especially access to medications 
that slow the progression of HIV to AIDS, are to improve the quality of 
life of those with AIDS, are to the health and well-being of and the 
care of people living with it.
  The CARE Act, though, is particularly important to the community that 
is hit the hardest, year after year, the African American community. 
About half of all Ryan White CARE Act clients are African American.
  More than eight in 10 clients at the Title IV clinics who receive 
important medical care, case management, child care and other services, 
are people of color, the majority of whom are African American women, 
children, youth and families.
  We must recognize that when the Ryan White CARE Act was created and 
passed, the face of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the unmet needs of those 
living with HIV disease, and the medical management of HIV and AIDS 
were much different than they are today.
  Furthermore, great strides in medical technology have slowed the 
progression from HIV to AIDS, allowing people with HIV disease to live 
longer, healthier lives. The CARE Act should be authorized in a manner 
that allows it to fully respond to the health and health care needs of 
those most at risk for, or those who currently are, living with HIV and 
AIDS.
  Because of this, any funding less than $3.1 billion is simply not 
acceptable. That is equivalent to what we spend every month in the war 
in Iraq.
  What it costs to make the Republican tax cuts permanent for 1 year is 
more than 10 times the amount needed to help ensure that a child born 
to an HIV-positive mother has a chance at life.
  One might be moved to ask why this crisis, which has taken so many 
lives, ruining so many families and having such a detrimental social 
and economic impact on our communities is being responded to in such an 
inadequate manner, if one can say it is being responded to at all?
  It is not the absence of urgent need. The numbers are there. Neither 
could it be due to lack of resources. We have seen this administration 
in times bankroll solutions to others and more expensive crises without 
hesitation. The reauthorization of the Ryan White CARE Act and adequate 
funding of this and all of the other health care programs that would 
improve the health of the poor, the rural or people of color, are not 
all that happening for one reason, the absence of political will.
  Mr. Speaker, I do not want us to lose sight of the fact that this Act 
gets its name from a brave little boy who was not only a pioneer but an 
inspiration. I did not know Ryan, but I do know his mother, Jeanne, and 
so on her behalf and on behalf of the patients I have served, and all 
of those infected with HIV or who have AIDS, their families, as well as 
all of the dedicated care providers, I ask that we not let this lapse 
in our moral responsibility be prolonged.
  Let us do the work we are entrusted to do and reauthorize and 
modernize an even stronger, better Ryan White CARE Act.

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