Barbara Boxer: “As I understand my friend, what has happened is that the President's own budget, instead of giving $3 billion for this…”

“As I understand my friend, what has happened is that the President's own budget, instead of giving $3 billion for this effort, which would be $3 billion this year and $3 billion each year for 5 years to meet his commitment, has underfunded his own request and has underfunded where the authorizing bill said this ought to be at $3 billion. Am I correct in saying when the President says he is waiting for Congress to act, essentially his own budget has undercut his commitment? I just want to make sure I understand that what the Senator is doing today is sending a signal to the people of the United States of America, and to the people who are suffering from AIDS worldwide, that this amendment would bring the amount up to the amount that was promised in the President's own authorizing legislation but that he has underfunded in his own budget and that this bill is underfunding. What you are doing is keeping the promise made by the President himself, in correcting what was a terrible mistake, it seems to me, in the fact that this bill, as it currently stands, without my colleague's amendment, underfunds that account for AIDS.”