Tom Coburn: “Mr. Speaker, I would challenge what the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) had to say. If my colleagues can see in…”

“Mr. Speaker, I would challenge what the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) had to say. If my colleagues can see in this chart the nominal funding per AIDS case, and the arguments that she just made do not hold water. The fact is the 13,000 people she describes, California still is getting money for them. Their funding formula in San Francisco still considers those 13,000. There is nothing in this bill as people are identified with HIV, not AIDS, San Francisco will get more money, not less money. So the argument that there will be less money attributable to recognition of HIV and what is done in the EMA in San Francisco, it holds no water. If one looks at this chart, what one sees is that San Francisco, in real dollars, based on 1999 EMA gets $5,958 per AIDS case. The next closest is $3,132 in Miami, Florida. My colleagues can see all the rest of the red there. The vast majority gets 60 percent or less than San Francisco. The goal of this bill is not to hurt San Francisco. The goal of the bill is to help those very people who do not have access at anywhere close to the level to the program, the medicines, or any other aspect of the Ryan White CARE funds. This is about fairness. This is not about fairness for a white male in Oklahoma.”