[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 15 (Monday, April 14, 1997)]
[Pages 472-474]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Announcing Sandra L. Thurman as Director of the Office of 
National AIDS Policy and an Exchange With Reporters

April 7, 1997

    The President. Thank you very much. Thank you. Please be seated. 
Thank you, Mr. Vice President. I'd like to join the Vice President in 
thanking Eric Goosby for his work as the Acting Director of the Office. 
And thank you very much, Patsy Fleming, for the fine job that you've 
done. We miss you. Thank you, Scott Hitt and all the members of the 
council, for the good work that you have been doing. And thank you, 
especially, for the meeting we had together not so very long ago, and 
the candor and passion of your recommendations.
    America has not beaten AIDS yet, but we are getting closer, and we 
remain committed to the fight and to winning it. More than ever, we need 
a strong advocate for people with AIDS, and of course that's why we're 
here today. Let me begin by reiterating our goal: We want to find a 
vaccine against the AIDS virus and a cure for those who have the HIV 
infection. They have eluded researchers so far, but we are committed. 
The work goes on, and it will go on until we are successful. Until that 
day comes when HIV and AIDS no longer threaten our people, we must 
continue to do all we can to hit the epidemic hard with a coordinated 
effort of research, treatment, and prevention.
    When I took office, I established the Office of National AIDS Policy 
because America had been turning its head away from the problem. Many 
Americans had not come to grips with HIV and AIDS and their 
consequences. Now we're learning AIDS strikes in the best of families, 
and from this disease, no community has immunity, gay or straight, black 
or white, male or female, old or young. Anyone can get AIDS, and if 
we're going to win this fight, we must begin with the acceptance of that 
fact.
    It was clear 4 years ago, as it is now, that it is only with an 
aggressive campaign against AIDS that we will win the battle. That is 
what we have begun. In the first 4 years, we increased overall spending 
by about 60 percent. In FY 1997 alone, $167 million will go to State 
AIDS drug assistance programs which provide access to medication, 
including protease inhibitors for low-income individuals with HIV who 
don't have prescription drug coverage.
    We speeded the time needed to approve drugs to treat AIDS, leading 
to the approval of 8 new AIDS drugs and 19 for AIDS-related conditions. 
This has allowed many people simply to go on with their lives, to live 
with this disease not worry free but not in despair either.
    We should all take heart that for the first time there has been a 
marked decrease in deaths among people with AIDS. With new treatment 
therapies, we hope to see even greater life expectancy. And with 
education and prevention, the number of estimated new HIV infections has 
slowed dramatically.
    In our war against AIDS, the Office of National AIDS Policy plays an 
important role. The Office is charged with coordinating all our Federal 
policy and programs regarding AIDS. It also builds our partnerships with 
other levels of government and with private-sector communities and 
organizations. Our Office is charged with keeping us on track in 
treatment and in education and to keep our focus on research for ways to 
prevent and cure this disease. An AIDS vaccine could save millions of 
lives around the world. And we must help those who are already infected. 
Make no mistake, a cure has been and always will be our very first 
priority.
    The Director of this Office must be an individual with a clear 
understanding of AIDS as a disease and as a social issue in America, 
someone who knows the scientific front as well as the human center of 
AIDS, someone who knows how to fight to cut through redtape to get the 
job done.
    I have found that person in the woman I nominate today to fill this 
office, Sandy Thurman. She is no stranger to those who know this issue. 
She's a member of our advisory council on HIV and AIDS. She's worked on 
the frontlines in the AIDS epidemic for

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more than a decade. She's been an advocate and a catalyst at the State, 
local, and national levels. She transformed AID Atlanta, the oldest and 
largest AIDS service organization in the South, into one of the most 
successful projects of its kind anywhere in the country. As executive 
director from 1988 to 1993, she tripled its size, beefed up its budget, 
and made it a direct-service agency with a staff of 90 workers and 1,000 
volunteers.
    Her experience in running a large community-based organization makes 
her especially well equipped to build the partnerships we need 
throughout our country, for beating the AIDS epidemic will take this 
kind of teamwork everywhere. I am pleased that she has agreed to serve 
as the Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy. I've worked with 
her, and I can attest, she tells it like it is. She speaks the truth 
unvarnished. She won't hold back in this office. [Laughter] She is 
passionate. She is committed. She is difficult to say no to. [Laughter] 
And I have already assured her that she will have the support and the 
resources she will need, including my personal support, to succeed in 
this all-important task. My door is open to her.
    And now I'd like for us to all hear what she has to say.
    Sandy Thurman.

[At this point, Ms. Thurman thanked the President and made brief 
remarks.]

    The President. Thank you very much.
    Q. Mr. President, how do you see this czar being different from your 
two previous czars? What would you like to see changed? And have you 
given up on the so-called Manhattan-style project that you promised in 
'92?
    The President. Well, first of all, I think if you look at--let me 
answer the second question, first. If I had told you in 1993, in 
January, when I was inaugurated, that we would have 8 new AIDS drugs, 19 
new drugs for AIDS-related conditions, that the number of AIDS related 
deaths would be going down, and that the quality and length of life 
expectancy would expand as much as it had, you would think that we had 
put a pretty good amount of effort in here with a 60 percent increase in 
our investment.
    So I think we're moving forward. What I would like to see is to rely 
on the President's Advisory Council and the AIDS Office even more 
heavily to mobilize even more people to have support for the work we're 
doing in research to find a cure and also to do more at the grassroots 
level and to tie the efforts at the community level to what we're trying 
to do nationally. And I think that Sandy will do a very good job of that 
because of her personal experience in Atlanta.
    Q. Mr. President, when you read----

Middle East Peace Process

    Q. Mr. President, do you think you've made any progress, sir, in 
your meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu? Do you think that you've 
been able to move the peace process closer to being back on track, as 
you put it earlier?
    The President. Well, we had quite a long meeting, as you know. What 
are we, an hour late staring here? [Laughter] And I apologize to you for 
that, but it was necessary that we continue the meeting. It was a long 
and very thorough meeting. Now it's important for us to visit with the 
Palestinians, and we'll try to get this thing up and going again.
    But you know how these things are--it's--I need to say not too much 
about it and work very hard on it. And that's what I'm going to do. I'm 
going to do my best to get it back on track.
    Q. But Mr. President, Mr. President, did anything--part of the 
Palestinian frustration is that the Prime Minister says he wants to 
speed up final status talks. His position, according to them, appears to 
be final. I was wondering if you saw any change in that position?
    The President. Well, I'm--again, I think the problem is the more I 
comment, the more I undermine the chances of success. We had a very 
specific, frank, candid, and long talk. And now we're going to talk to 
the Palestinians and see whether there is something we can do to get 
this thing going again. And we'll do our very best, and I'll do my best. 
That's all I think I should say right now.
    Q. Thank you.
    The President. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 2:25 p.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the 
White House. In his remarks, he referred to Patricia Fleming, former 
Director, Office of National AIDS Policy, and H.

[[Page 474]]

Scott Hitt, Chairman, Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS.