Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick: “to Chairman Kolbe and to my ranking member, Nita Lowey, who has shepherded this bill through the many years that I have…”

“to Chairman Kolbe and to my ranking member, Nita Lowey, who has shepherded this bill through the many years that I have been on the committee, through several chairmen and ranking members, I just want to say thank you very much for your leadership and for your cooperation, because it makes it easier for all of the subcommittee members when our Chair and ranking member work together. I want to thank you for that. To Chairman Kolbe, as you enter your next life, sir, I just want to say thank you for your leadership, your compassion and your working togetherness that you have demonstrated as I have worked with you over these last many years. We are going to miss you in this body. I am sure your next opportunities will also enhance this body. So congratulations and good luck to you. I stand in support of this bill. It is a bipartisan effort that we have worked together on for several months now. If we had more money, we could have done better. But we did the best with what we had. Mr. Chairman, I am happy that the HIV account is probably funded higher than it has been ever under Chairman Kolbe and Ranking Member Lowey's leadership and direction. HIV/AIDS is a pandemic in the world, and the U.S. is certainly doing our part. And I want to thank the administration as well as the Members of this Congress, both House and Senate, for standing by and making available treatment options so that people can have fuller, better lives.…”