Tom Coburn: “this amendment does not save us any money but saves hundreds of lives. Some 5 years ago, we embarked on making major…”

“this amendment does not save us any money but saves hundreds of lives. Some 5 years ago, we embarked on making major changes at the CDC through a construction program, through advancing the facilities there by increasing the capabilities of the CDC. At the end of this fiscal year, September 30, they had unspent moneys in excess of $240 million going toward this construction budget. This year, the President asked for $30 million to be in that construction budget. The House passed $30 million in the construction budget. I believe we have in this bill $225 million for additional construction moneys, making available almost $500 million for expenditure in the next 12 months. This amendment is a simple amendment. It is backed by thousands of groups in the country, and it says while people are dying from HIV, they cannot get medicines under the ADAP program because we cannot fund it significantly. We have multiple States with people on waiting lists. We have multiple States that cap the available benefits. It is a death sentence to those people with HIV today. This moves $60 million from that account into the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, a vital program to keep people working, to keep people active, and to make the lifesaving drugs available to those people with an infection of HIV who have no other access to lifesaving drugs. I believe priorities ought to be directed toward the emerging disease program at the CDC. As a matter of fact, that building is complete.…”