[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 3400-3401]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        BLACK AIDS AWARENESS DAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. LEE. Madam Speaker, today is Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, a day 
when we urge African Americans to get educated, get involved and get 
tested. On Monday, the House passed my resolution H. Con. Res. 35, 
recognizing the goals and the ideals of Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.
  The global HIV/AIDS pandemic is simply devastating black America, 
Africa and the Caribbean in disproportionate numbers to the rest of the 
world. With 40 million people infected around the world, over 1 million 
of which are right here in the United States, this disease is as much a 
problem in South Africa as it is in my district in Alameda County.
  In the United States, among young people, among women, and among men, 
African Americans are at the most risk of getting infected with HIV, of 
developing AIDS and of dying of this disease. The unfortunate reality 
is that to be black in America is to be at greater risk of HIV and 
AIDS.
  The numbers are staggering, but let me just mention a few 
specifically. According to CDC, in 2005, African American women 
accounted for 66 percent of all new HIV/AIDS cases among women. 
Compared to white women, African American women were 25 times more 
likely to be infected. Today, AIDS is the number one, number one cause 
of death among African American women between the ages of 25 and 34. 
That is, quite frankly, just mind boggling.
  Black gay men are also heavily affected by this disease. In 2005, CDC 
surveyed black gay men in five United States cities and found that 46 
percent, 46 percent were HIV positive. The situation is just as stark 
in my own district. In Alameda County, over 6,600 cases of AIDS have 
been diagnosed since 1980, and nearly 4,000 people have died. Of those 
numbers, African Americans represent well over 40 percent of the 
cumulative AIDS cases and AIDS deaths in the county.
  In 1998, we became the first county in the nation to declare a state 
of emergency in the African American community. We tapped into the 
emergency funds and started a community-wide task force that included 
local AIDS service organizations, elected officials and county health 
departments. Together, this task force sought to provide a focused and 
very targeted response to the AIDS epidemic within the African American 
community in Alameda County.
  At the same time, here in Congress, with the leadership of my 
colleague, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, who was then chair of the 
Congressional Black Caucus, and Congresswoman Donna Christensen, and, 
of course, with President Clinton signing this, we created the Minority 
AIDS Initiative in 1998. I have to thank the gentlelady from California 
for her leadership in helping us break the silence here on Capitol Hill 
with regard to the devastating cases and the situation of African 
Americans in America as it relates to HIV and AIDS, and recognizing the 
inability of our traditional programs to serve the minority 
communities.
  The Minority AIDS Initiative was specifically designed to build 
capacity and to expand HIV/AIDS outreach activities so that we can 
target programs and services, target them directly to those who need 
them. It took us 8 years, but I am happy to say that, last year, we 
finally codified the Minority AIDS Initiative by passing the Ryan White 
Treatment Modernization Act at the end of the Congress last year, which 
included the Minority AIDS Initiative.

                              {time}  1545

  But now, of course, what do we have to do? We have got to fully fund 
it. We need a minimum of $61 million, and that is just a drop in the 
bucket. We need billions of dollars to address this pandemic. And at 
the same time we have got to go further. We have got to get to the real 
factors that are ultimately driving the epidemic in the African 
American community: poverty and discrimination, the lack of affordable 
housing, the disproportionate rates of incarceration among black men, 
poor access to care, and limited cultural competency for health service 
providers.
  All of these deserve our attention and deserve action. We can start 
to get at one of these factors by ending really what this is, is a 
head-in-the-sand approach to HIV prevention that is turning our 
prisons, really turning our prisons into a breeding ground for this 
disease.
  We need to provide routine, but rigorous opt-out HIV testing that is 
linked with treatment for all incarcerated persons. Congresswoman 
Waters, I am sure she will talk about her bill in her presentation. But 
this is, again, a major step in the right direction. We have got to 
pass Congresswoman Waters' bill, my bill, H.R. 178, which is called the 
Justice Act. This would allow condoms in our prisons and demand 
accountability in stopping the spread of HIV and other sexually 
transmitted infections among incarcerated persons.
  We have got to do this. This is a crisis. And we have to do this 
part, our part, in Congress to make sure that this happens. We must 
continue to work with advocates and health providers and faith 
communities to raise awareness, to get tested and to get active in our 
communities.
  We participated last year with the International Aids Conference in 
Toronto, and there were wonderful, unbelievable activists at that 
conference from America, African Americans, who came to Toronto to 
raise the plight of the African American AIDS pandemic to the 
international level.

[[Page 3401]]

  Many were amazed that here in America we have a pandemic that is just 
killing many of our communities. At that conference many of our civil 
rights organizations recommitted themselves to making the stamping out 
of HIV and AIDS a top priority in terms of their overall objectives.

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