Bill Clinton: “Well, let me make a couple comments. First of all, I think the vaccine director is about to be appointed. I've been as…”

“Well, let me make a couple comments. First of all, I think the vaccine director is about to be appointed. I've been as impatient about that as you have. I've been--[inaudible]. Secondly, I do think Dr. Neal Nathanson, the new Director of the Office of AIDS Research, has been doing quite a good job. We got about a 33 percent increase in funds for vaccine research in the last budget, so that's good. And we're going to try to--I just had a brief meeting, before I came in here, with our folks, talking about how we can expand Sandy's office over here and introduce this kind of work and kind of ride her on this thing. I think that's important. It does make a difference just to have a sort of sustained White House involvement on any kind of project to keep cutting through the resistance. [Council member Regina Aragon addressed the need for meaningful and substantial increases in HIV funding in the fiscal year 2000 budget. She thanked the President for his efforts in securing $156 million in funding for a Congressional Black Caucus initiative to address the AIDS crisis in the African-American and Latino communities but noted that conditions required a sustained and expanded Federal response. Ms. Aragon also underscored the importance of funding for a national testing awareness media campaign. Michael T. Isbell, cochair of the Council's Prevention Subcommittee, noted that more than 90 percent of HIV infections occur in the developing world. He commended the President for a $10 million program addressing the needs of AIDS-affected women and orphans and suggested making that funding a permanent part of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Saying that U.S. funding for global AIDS activities had declined in real dollars since 1993, he urged more funding in the upcoming budget and improved coordination of Federal international AIDS efforts.]”