[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 44 (Monday, November 2, 1998)]
[Pages 2166-2168]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Announcing the HIV/AIDS Initiative in Minority Communities

October 28, 1998

    Thank you and welcome, every one of you. I'd like to begin by 
welcoming the Mayor of Baltimore, Kurt Schmoke, and the Mayor of East 
St. Louis, Gordon Bush. I'd like to thank the Members of Congress here 
behind me who are so responsible for the purpose for which we are called 
today.
    I want to acknowledge Congresswoman Donna Christian-Green, 
Congressman Elijah Cummings, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, 
Congressman Donald Payne. I will say more about Congresswoman Maxine 
Waters and Representative Lou Stokes in a moment. [Laughter] But I want 
to thank them and all the members of the Congressional Black Caucus, 
including all the House members and Senator Carol Moseley-Braun, for 
what they did. And then I would like to offer a special word of 
appreciation to Senator Arlen Specter and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, 
who helped us so much to get this done. Thank you very much.
    I want to thank everyone in our administration who has worked so 
hard on the issue of HIV and AIDS, beginning with the Vice President, 
who couldn't be here today but who has worked very hard on all these 
issues; and Secretary Shalala; our wonderful Surgeon General, David 
Satcher; the Director of our AIDS Policy Office, Sandy Thurman, who has 
literally spent months sounding the alarm about the growing crisis in 
communities of color and working to help achieve

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these dramatic funding increases. There is no stronger or more effective 
advocate, and I think we ought to thank Sandy Thurman for what she's 
done.
    Finally, I want to thank Denise Stokes for being here. As you will 
hear in a few moments, she has been living with HIV for 15 years and has 
been giving so much of herself to educate others. if we are to stop this 
cruel disease, we'll have to have brave people like Denise to reach out 
with candor and compassion to those at risk. I really admire her very 
much. And you'll hear from her in a moment, but I think we ought to give 
her a hand for showing up today. [Applause]
    We have good reason to feel encouraged that so many HIV-positive men 
and women are living longer and healthier lives. We should be proud that 
we've helped to speed the development of lifesaving therapies and nearly 
tripled funding to support those with HIV and AIDS.
    But the AIDS epidemic is far from over in any community in our 
country. Today we're here to send out a word loud and clear: AIDS is a 
particularly severe and ongoing crisis in the African-American and 
Hispanic communities and in other communities of color. African-
Americans represent only 13 percent of our population but account for 
almost half the new AIDS cases reported last year. Hispanics represent 
10 percent of our population; they account for more than 20 percent of 
the new AIDS cases. And AIDS is becoming a critical concern in some 
Native-American and Asian-American communities, as well.
    Like other epidemics before it, AIDS is now hitting hardest in areas 
where knowledge about the disease is scarce and poverty is high. In 
other words, as so often happens, it is picking on the most vulnerable 
among us.
    The fact is HIV infection is one of the most deadly health 
disparities between African-Americans, Hispanics, and white Americans. 
And just as we have committed to help build one America by ending the 
racial and ethnic disparities in infant mortality and cancer and other 
diseases, we must use all our power to end the growing disparities in 
HIV and AIDS.
    The AIDS crisis in our communities of color is a national one, and 
that is why we are greatly increasing our national response. Today I am 
proud to announce we are launching an unprecedented $156 million 
initiative to stem the AIDS crisis in minority communities.
    It is one of the greatest victories in the balanced budget law I 
just signed. It never could have happened without the passionate and 
compassionate leadership of Maxine Waters, Lou Stokes, and the rest of 
the Congressional Black Caucus or the support of Senator Specter and 
Congresswoman Pelosi and so many others.
    Now, this initiative will allow thousands of cities, churches, 
schools, and grassroots organizations to expand prevention efforts and 
target them to the specific needs of specific minority communities such 
as young men, students, pregnant mothers. It will allow minority 
communities to expand treatment for substance abuse. It will increase 
access to protease inhibitors and other new therapies, because 
lifesaving therapies cannot be a luxury reserved only for the rich.
    It will increase access to skilled doctors and other health care 
providers. And finally, it will help us to assemble teams of public 
health experts from the Centers for Disease Control and other Federal 
agencies to visit individual communities and provide whatever technical 
assistance those communities need.
    This new initiative will build on the other historic funding 
increases in HIV/AIDS funding we won in the new balanced budget, which 
Secretary Shalala will talk about in greater detail in a moment. I'm 
also pleased that it will build on our race and health initiative. 
Congress has taken a first step to fund this initiative, but we must do 
more. We are not one America when some of our communities lag so far 
behind in health.
    Of course, this room looks nothing like a house of worship except 
for a few collars I see. [Laughter] But I'd like to end my remarks today 
with what I think is quite an appropriate passage from the First Letter 
of Paul to the Corinthians. ``The body is a unit, though it is made up 
of many parts. And though all its parts are many, they form one body. If 
one part suffers, every part suffers

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with it. If one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.''
    So it is with the body of Americans, and a nation that strives to be 
one America. Every one of our communities is inextricably linked in 
suffering and rejoicing, in sickness and in health. And that is why we 
must work together in every community to stop this cruel disease. Black 
or white, gay or straight, rich or poor, you name it, we have to stop 
it.
    Now I'd like to present America's Surgeon General, our Nation's 
family doctor, whose deep commitment to advancing our country's health 
is embodied in the 200-year-old guiding principle of our public health 
service that you best protect the health of the entire nation when you 
reach out to the most vulnerable people.
    Dr. David Satcher.

Note: The President spoke at 5:16 p.m. in Room 450 of the Old Executive 
Office Building. In his remarks, the President referred to AIDS activist 
Denise Stokes, member, Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS.