Henry Waxman: “as I listen to the debate, I wondered why do we have this bill up at this moment? There is no urgency, except for the…”

“as I listen to the debate, I wondered why do we have this bill up at this moment? There is no urgency, except for the fact that we read last week that the number of HIV infections is going up, even as more people with AIDS are living longer because of drug therapy. Today, we are not spending Federal dollars for needle exchange programs, although some people think it might be a good public health strategy to reduce the spread of AIDS. Ordinarily, when we get people saying a policy is worthwhile and others saying it is not, we would hold hearings and we try to find out the truth. But this bill is being brought up without the committee that has jurisdiction holding any hearings, without hearing from the Surgeon General, the American Medical Association, and the public health community to learn the truth. This bill is being brought up now, it seems to me, for political reasons. What would be the political reasons involved? Well, it is always great politics for someone to say they are against drug addiction. We can all say that. We are all against drug addiction. But there is another political reason. It seems to me that if I were part of the Republican leadership and my party had received millions of dollars from the tobacco companies, I would want to change the subject. I would want to talk about drugs. It is an important issue, but it is not being handled in a responsible way that an important issue should be handled.”