Bill Clinton: “Communities October 28, 1998 Today I am making available to the Department of Health and Human Services an additional…”

“Communities October 28, 1998 Today I am making available to the Department of Health and Human Services an additional $217 million in emergency funding. These funds were provided in P.L. 105-277, the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1999, which I signed into law on Wednesday, October 21st. These funds will provide $50 million to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to address the HIV/AIDS crisis facing the African- American community and other racial and ethnic minority communities due to the changing demographics of the disease. These funds are available for HHS to transfer to other agencies for several important purposes: to expand and improve access to state-of-the-art HIV/AIDS therapies; to strengthen and expand targeted HIV/AIDS effective prevention and intervention activities; to support HIV/AIDS substance abuse activities; to provide critical technical assistance in high-risk communities; and to build and sustain HIV/AIDS infrastructure. In addition, these emergency funds will provide HHS with $139 million to prepare for and manage the response to the medical and public health consequences of a chemical-biological weapons incident.…”