[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 20066]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     REAUTHORIZE THE RYAN WHITE ACT

  (Mr. TOWNS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, I am extremely disappointed that after an 
entire year, we cannot get the Ryan White reauthorization process 
right.
  We should not be robbing Peter to pay Paul. That means we should not 
be cutting precious funds from places like New York, New Jersey, 
California, and many other States that have historically borne the 
burden of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
  We should have enough money to take care of the people who are most 
at risk, regardless of where they live. The amendment that I offered in 
committee that would have added the needed funds was defeated. But I 
plan to offer it again on the floor, and I hope that the outcome is 
very, very different.
  We need to get the money to places that have substantially high HIV/
AIDS populations, particularly African American and Hispanic women and 
men, and substance abusers. We cannot leave these most at-risk 
populations without medications and care.
  This reauthorization in its present form does just that. And it is 
wrong, and I am hoping that the Members of this body will realize that 
we need to do something about this and should not leave people just to 
die and die because we are not acting properly.

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