Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, in developing countries, tuberculosis kills more than 2 million people a year, 1 person every 15 seconds. In India alone, 1,100 people die from tuberculosis every day. Tuberculosis is the greatest infectious killer of adults worldwide. Forty percent of HIV-positive people die due to tuberculosis-related complications. These statistics are staggering not just because of the sheer number of people affected, but because most people think we have eradicated TB. I was a senior in high school when the tuberculosis sanatorium closed in my community. Foreign travel has brought tuberculosis back to the U.S., often in its most lethal, drug-resistant form. We need to launch a smarter, better-funded effort to protect ourselves from tuberculosis. We have the means with medications and vaccines to stop TB. We need the means to adequately deploy these resources domestically and internationally to prevent the spread of tuberculosis. Here in Congress, we have gone from zero to $60 million in 3 short years in terms of funding. Mr. Chairman, 4 years ago, the institution had no financial commitment to the battle against worldwide tuberculosis. Three years ago Congress gave $12 million to anti-tuberculosis efforts, 2 years $35 million; and last year, we reached a milestone when Congress appropriated $60 million to combat international tuberculosis.”