Political Quotes

“I reiterate, there are over a dozen agencies that focus on this issue, and this amendment reduces by one- tenth of 1 percent the amount that is allocated toward AIDS research and prevention in our country today. This is the portion which is race based, which of course my friends across the aisle cannot tolerate any reduction or elimination of any program that is race based because their policies seek to divide the country. This $28 million may seem like a drop in the bucket of what does need to be cut from our Federal spending, but this is a start. I urge my colleagues to support ensuring funding allocation that is based on need and not based on race and to vote in favor of this amendment. Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time. Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chair, I continue to oppose this amendment. I also might add, if you take the base bill which my Republican colleagues have come forward with, which is really unacceptable, the base bill ends the HIV initiative. These are programs that have been eliminated. It eliminates the HIV initiative here. This amendment would further cut the opportunity for treating AIDS in the minority community. What is going on here that we are not moving toward ending the HIV epidemic? We are close to it, which is why we dealt with this initiative on a bipartisan basis over the last 4 years. This, once again, is my colleagues turning their backs on saving people's lives. What more important effort should we be involved in in this Congress?…”