Political Quotes

“As a founding co-chair of both the Congressional Out of Poverty Caucus and the Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus, I rise today to draw attention once again to the ongoing crisis of poverty in America. And, today, I also want to draw particular attention to the impact of poverty on our national fight to stop HIV and AIDS. Mr. Speaker, December 1 is World AIDS Day, and this year marks 30 years after the first discovery of AIDS cases. The United States and the HIV/AIDS community globally have made tremendous progress in our collective response to this domestic and global crisis. We have reduced the stigma surrounding the disease and strengthened education and outreach activities which continue to prevent millions of new cases of HIV worldwide. The scientific community has improved the treatment of HIV and AIDS with anti-retrovirals and combination therapies, and recent breakthroughs have revolutionized the way we think about AIDS. We have come a long way in our battle against AIDS. Contracting HIV no longer has to be a death sentence. But we have much more work to do. Not everyone who is HIV positive has access to these life-saving therapies. For the one in three Americans who are poor or near poor, HIV can still be the same death sentence that it was during the Reagan Presidency. Today, nearly one in five Americans with HIV do not even know their status, and only about half of Americans who do know their status are receiving the treatment that they need.…”