Political Quotes

“Rarely does Congress act with decisiveness for the benefit of so many suffering in the developing world. But this is precisely what we are doing today in enacting H.R. 1298, the United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS Act of 2003. With each passing day, HIV/AIDS claims more and more innocent victims. Not since the bubonic plague swept across the world in the last millennium has our world confronted such a horrible, unspeakable curse as we are now witnessing with the growing HIV/AIDS pandemic. The number of dead or dying is grotesquely high: 25 million already dead worldwide, and the number growing at a rate of 8,500 every day, with the prospects of entire villages populated only by orphans because the adults are dead or dying from AIDS. The bill we are considering today is the very same bill which passed the House May 1 by a vote of 375 to 41, with the exception of a minor amendment regarding debt forgiveness in poor countries. The Hyde-Lantos bill authorizes the President's 5-year $15 billion emergency plan for treatment and prevention of AIDS in those countries already facing crisis.”