Haley Stevens: “AIDS has been a matter of attention by our subcommittee since 1982. It was our subcommittee that initiated the first…”

“AIDS has been a matter of attention by our subcommittee since 1982. It was our subcommittee that initiated the first AIDS research with public funds that I know of in the world. That research is still going on by the Department of Defense. We were looking for some way to prevent the transmission of AIDS. I am sad to say we have not been successful. In the period just prior to our bill in the eighties, I had listened to a lecture at the Cosmos Club where the lecturer had predicted we would witness AIDS becoming a plague--more than an epidemic; it actually would become a plague. That prediction has become too true, and the President has committed $15 billion over a period of 3 years for our contributions to the AIDS program. We have in our budget so far total spending of $2.4 billion that is directed to global AIDS spending. I am trying to get the total figures. I think we have over another $2 billion in our total budget directed toward AIDS spending. It is true that money is going to agencies other than USAID, but in foreign operations, there is $1.5 billion, and Labor, Health and Human Services has $683 million. My point is, we have an enormous amount of money in the bill before us already for AIDS spending.”