Washington, DC -- U.S. Congressman Sherrod Brown (D-Lorain) today urged his colleagues to pass a measure continuing and improving services for people living with HIV/AIDS.  Brown, the top Democrat on the Commerce Health and Environment Subcommittee, made the following statement at a subcommittee hearing on The Ryan White CARE Act Amendments of 2000, legislation he has cosponsored.

     "The Ryan White CARE Act has been and continues to be the nation's most effective weapon against HIV/AIDS.  The United States has been well-served by the Act in two critical ways.  It combats the illness itself, and it combats the fear, prejudice and alienation that HIV/AIDS has engendered in this country.

     AIDS is set to kill more people worldwide than WWI, WWII, the Korean War and Vietnam War combined.  Those individuals committed to fighting AIDS on a global scale face the same kind of obstacles Ryan White faced two decades ago: ignorance, fear, apathy and the urgent need for resources.

     Ryan White was on this earth for only 18 years, but in that time he taught Americans that we need to fight AIDS, not fear it, or ignore it, or use it to perpetuate harmful prejudices.  His lessons live on in the Ryan White Care Act.  Let's keep his lessons alive and reauthorize this bill." Brown said.

     The CARE Act was passed in 1990 after the death of Ryan White, the young Indiana activist who fought for an end to discrimination against people with HIV and AIDS.  Reauthorized once in 1996 with overwhelming bipartisan support, the Senate last month unanimously passed legislation reauthorizing the CARE Act.  The Ryan White CARE Act Amendments of 2000 would continue the successful public-private partnership enabling community-based organizations to provide health care, counseling, and social services to low-income Americans with HIV and AIDS.

     Brown noted that most of the 13th Congressional District is included in Ohio's only Title One Eligible Metropolitan Area (EMA).  Title One funds provide health care, support services, and medications that have literally brought people back to life.  Whether people with HIV/AIDS live in the more rural areas like Medina County or in the more urban Elyria, the Ryan White CARE Act provides medical care, dental services, medications, alcohol and drug treatment, mental health services, and nutrition.

     Brown was instrumental in bringing Joe Davy, Policy Advocate for the Columbus AIDS Task Force and co-chair of the AIDS Action Ryan White Reauthorization Working Group, to testify before the committee.  Davy described Ohio's successful implementation of the CARE Act and supported provisions in the reauthorization bill improving access to services for the burgeoning population of people living with HIV/AIDS.
 
     Brown noted the House Health and Environment Subcommittee was considering the reauthorization of the Ryan White CARE Act at the same time that  -- thousands of miles away -- scientists, activists and people living with HIV/AIDS are meeting in Durban, South Africa as part of the Thirteenth International AIDS Conference.