Haley Stevens: “Prior to the President's initiative, the total for AIDS was $1.2 billion. It is my judgment, because of the amount of…”

“Prior to the President's initiative, the total for AIDS was $1.2 billion. It is my judgment, because of the amount of money we are spending in all the other agencies to increase our knowledge and ability to deal with AIDS, that this is a proper amount of money. We have the commitment that this money will increase as we get more and more people trained. We listened to the Secretary of State the other morning tell us about the problem we have in finding people to train and help with the medical problems of the people we are dealing with in terms of AIDS throughout Africa in particular. I thought it was a very moving response he gave to the questions about AIDS. Very clearly, right now there are two issues in the amendment of the Senator. First, I believe we have met the initial year's objective for the President's global initiative on AIDS. I believe we have an overwhelming amount of money in the total bills before the Congress this year, all 13 appropriations bills, on AIDS. Further, the way the Senator from West Virginia wants to offset this amount, in my judgment, will bring great harm to the area of modernization of our aging equipment and the replacement of the equipment that has been damaged and destroyed by war. So I am forced to say to the Senator from West Virginia that I am compelled to make a motion to table his amendment at an appropriate time.”