Barbara Boxer: “I feel very badly about what we are doing tonight. We are passing an inferior bill that was passed by the other body so…”

“I feel very badly about what we are doing tonight. We are passing an inferior bill that was passed by the other body so that the President can hold in his hand a piece of AIDS legislation. How better it would be if it were a fine piece of legislation, if it were a more thoughtful piece of legislation, if it were a more effective piece of legislation. But the fix is in. All amendments are being voted down because of the President's schedule. Well, I didn't get elected from the largest State in the Union, that has been fighting the AIDS epidemic ever since Senator Feinstein was a mayor and I was on the county board of supervisors, to rush through something like this. I think it is really very sad that we are being governed by the schedule of the executive branch. I want to tell you very quickly what my amendment does. It restores a focus on AIDS orphans. You cannot think of anything more tragic. AIDS orphans were the focus of the bills that passed the Senate before. They are no longer the focus. More than 10 million children have been orphaned by AIDS. It is estimated that, by the year 2010, there will be over 40 million children left orphaned by this horrendous disease. That is a population so large that it is more than California's 37 million residents. It is 8 Wisconsins or 70 North Dakotas. You get the point.…”