Washington, D.C. - Congresswoman Hilda L. Solis (D-CA) issued the following statement, Thursday night in opposition of H.R. 6143, the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Modernization Act of 2006, because it fails to provide adequate funding for persons living with HIV/AIDS.  She urged reauthorization of a bill that will secure access to funding for the state of California and impacted communities across the country. 

Solis was successful in securing language which recognizes the efforts of AIDS service organizations to ensure delivery of linguistically and culturally competent care and which recognizes language services are increasingly important to persons with limited English proficiency at risk of and living with HIV/AIDS.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved this bill 325-98.

“Mr. Speaker, I’m not reluctant to vote against this bill. I voted against it in committee because it's not the right measure that we should be approving today.

“In fact, I supported some of our alternative amendments that were presented by folks on our side of the aisle. But for my community this is devastating. When you see an increase in communities like East Los Angeles, the hub of the Hispanic community, and the San Gabriel Valley who fought more than 20 years to combat this disease and it continues to be on the rise and you want to take away very important funding and re-appropriate it to other parts of the country.

“We need to expand the pie. We need to make sure people are covered everywhere. I’m glad to hear from my colleagues that while we know that this is not a good solution because we really are working towards a deadline, October 1, we should hold off, make some rational decisions, and when we come back in November do the right thing for those afflicted by this disease.