Steven Gunderson: “first I rise in support of the conference report; to the commitment tonight continues. Second, I rise to extend my deep…”

“first I rise in support of the conference report; to the commitment tonight continues. Second, I rise to extend my deep and sincere appreciation to the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Bilirakis], the chairman of the subcommittee, to the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Bliley], chairman of the full committee, certainly to the gentleman from California [Mr. Waxman], to the gentleman from Oklahoma, [Mr. Coburn], and others who have worked so hard to bring this day to its reality. The fact is that this is a difficult process and there were some issues that were obviously very difficult, the infant testing issue, the formula for title II. But both of those issues have been resolved in, I think, a very positive and constructive way. I can tell you from a Wisconsin perspective, because we now have some reforms in the title II program, we can look toward an increase in our funding in 1996 over 1995 of from $1 million to $1.5 million. In addition, because we now have a drug assistance program, we can look at the potential because it has been funded under the appropriation process, of literally $254,000 in that regard. I would hope that we would send a message tonight, a message that has been developed over the last 2 weeks, that shows that this Congress on a bipartisan basis, and, yes, that includes the Republican majority, has sent the word that we understand and we care and we want to help. We did it first and foremost last week when we repealed the DOD-HIV provisions.…”