Political Quotes

“Well, let me first thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez), and I want to thank my good colleague as well, the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen), for her leadership in bringing to the attention of the Congress and of bringing our two caucuses together to focus on where AIDS has spread and the changing face and color of AIDS. I want to thank the gentleman from Texas especially for being at the Sunday 20-year celebration, because I think his speaking and my speaking made the point we are trying to make here, and that is that this disease has changed radically in 20 years and we are here this evening to make that point. The theme of what I want to say is that after 20 years, we owe it to the almost million who have been infected in this country, almost half of them dead of the disease, to stress prevention over every other issue, because this is indeed a preventable disease. Members know the fight I have personally had in my own district just to get needle exchange, something that every scientific organization believes is an important way to prevent AIDS, especially since today 30 percent of the new cases are women.”