World AIDS Day

Floor Speech

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, today across the globe, people are marking World AIDS Day. It's an opportunity to reflect upon the progress we've made in the fight against HIV/AIDS, this pandemic, and to rededicate ourselves to ending the disease once and for all.

World AIDS Day is an occasion to remember friends, family members, loved ones, and millions of others lost to the disease. It is a solemn reminder of those still living with HIV/AIDS, whether in the cities of the United States, or the villages of Africa, Asia, or elsewhere. It is a reminder of the need to continue the fight to keep investing in research and medical advances, to stay focused on new treatments, care, prevention, and early intervention--a key element of quality of life; to expand housing opportunities to people with HIV/AIDS and end discrimination.

Yet it's also a reminder of how far we've traveled since the first World AIDS Day in 1988 and the first AIDS diagnosis, which we acknowledged recently on the 30-year anniversary of the first AIDS diagnosis.

In my hometown of San Francisco, we learned early on of the terrible toll of HIV/AIDS, the toll it could take on a community.

But that knowledge, as sad as it was, drove us to action, advocacy, and progress. Because we had suffered so much, we could also become a model for the country and indeed the world with our community-based solutions in regard to prevention, to care, and to research for a cure or vaccine.

This is something I'm very proud of, and really it found its way into legislation: the Ryan White Care Act; housing opportunities for people with HIV/AIDS; increased funding for NIH research; expanded investments in prevention, care, treatment; and an end to the ban on Federal funds for syringe exchange. Something very important if you're going to prevent AIDS.

Beyond our borders, we have extended care to millions in the developing world. Early on in our community, when we would have an AIDS mobilization day, right almost from the start--and Congresswoman Woolsey can attest to this--we understood if you're going to meet the challenge of HIV/AIDS at home, you have to have a mobilization that is global because AIDS knew no borders, but it had to be global.

So we would have these vigils of thousands of people walking in a great solemn way to talk about ending AIDS globally almost right from the start, although we were feeling it very personally, very locally in our community. Beyond our borders--that's why we extended care to millions in the developing world. We increased resources for PEPFAR and the Global Fund. And I commend President Bush for his leadership on PEPFAR and the commitment that he made there.

I congratulate President Obama for the statement that he made this morning which increased funding for the Ryan White Care Initiative that supports care provided by HIV medical clinics across the country and also added funding for the drug program initiative for people with HIV/AIDS, and his commitment to a new target of helping 6 million people around the world get treatment by the end of 2013. It's very important.

I commend Secretary Clinton for her strong leadership and her statement about ridding AIDS, especially among children, as soon as possible.

The challenges that we have faced over the years, some have disappeared. When I first came to Congress, I was sworn in in a special election, and they told me you're not allowed to speak. You just raise your hand and say, ``Yes, I support and defend the Constitution.''

But then the Speaker, Speaker Wright, said, ``Would the gentlelady from California wish to address the House?'' I had been told not to address the House, and if I did, to be very, very brief. So I stood up and acknowledged my father, Thomas D'Alesandro, had served as a Member of Congress, so he was on the floor of the Congress, and my family, and I thanked them all and my constituents. My one sentence was, ``I came here to fight against HIV and AIDS.'' And that was about it.

Well, my colleagues who had told me to be brief then said, ``Why would you even mention that?'' This was 24 years ago. ``Why would you even mention that? The first thing that you want to say to the Members of Congress when you get here is you're here to fight HIV/AIDS? Why did you say such a thing?''

I said, ``Well, I said such a thing because that's why I came here.''

But I never would have thought 24 years ago that we would project--really into another generation now--that we would not have a cure for HIV/AIDS. Never would have thought.

But in the meantime, we've reduced discrimination. We've expanded prevention, care, deepened our research, actually mobilized support. Some, like Bono on the outside, using his celebrity to attract attention to the issue. Public policy, whether it's President Bush, President Clinton. And now with this global initiative, and President Obama, we're at a completely different place than we were then when they wouldn't even have an AIDS ribbon in significant places in Washington, D.C. Today we all proudly wear that ribbon.

Again, it's a day of reminder, but it's also a day where we act upon those reminders of the work that needs to be done. And again, it's a global challenge, but it is a very personal issue.

The statistics are staggering, but we think of them one person at a time. And that is what we have to act upon. This Congress has been great on the subject. I hope that we will continue to honor our responsibility.

Again, on AIDS Day in San Francisco today we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of AIDS Memorial Grove.

This is something that this Congress designated as a national memorial. This is of great significance to our community, for sure--I think very appropriately so--and also for the issue of AIDS. So, when you go West, you have to go to the AIDS memorial and see it as a spirit of renewal--a garden, a grove--always with that fresh, new growth. We have it as a remembrance, too, of those who have been lost and as a comfort to their families.

With that, again, Mr. Speaker, I join others in calling to our colleagues' attention and to those who follow Congress the importance of fighting HIV/AIDS as well as its importance to people, to communities, to our country, and to the world for our good health, for our economy, for the success of individuals.

Source