Sherrod Brown

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Eshoo), who has been an outspoken and tireless advocate on behalf of AIDS patients.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen).

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) who, with the gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman) has probably done more to fight HIV/AIDS in this institution.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/4\ minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Eshoo).

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I have a parliamentary inquiry.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Coburn) implied that we had less than 20 minutes per side. How much time do we have?

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Coburn) complained about the lateness of the hour, and all of us concur with that. An issue as important as this was scheduled literally last among 35 suspensions. We are behind tonight naming post offices, regarding celebrating anniversaries; we are after our sense of Congress resolution regarding the importance of families eating together, something we all support, but a Congressional resolution for that; recognizing the importance of children in the U.S. We obviously recognize that. But to put all of that before this, it is again the sort of do-nothing Republican leadership in Congress that makes these decisions to schedule bills as important as this that we bipartisanly agree on finally after negotiations to put this bill last. It is clearly not the way this Congress should operate. We should be doing this during the day when Members of Congress are awake and in this Chamber and watching from their offices. Instead we are doing a very, very important bill, the Ryan White CARE Act, in literally the middle of the night. Mr. Speaker, I think none of us approve of that kind of lack of leadership by Republicans in this Chamber. I want to commend the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Coburn) for his work; the gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman) for his work; Roland Foster, in the office of the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Coburn); Paul Kim, in the office of the gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman); and Ellie Dehoney, in my office, for their exceptional work on this legislation. The battle against HIV/AIDS is more than a medical challenge, although that challenge alone is overwhelming. It is a battle against ignorance, against intolerance, against apathy. It is a battle against isolation, against alienation, against despair. It is a battle against time, it is international, and it is down the street. AIDS is set to kill more people worldwide than World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War combined. The Ryan White CARE Act responds to HIV/AIDS, not just as a public health crisis, but as a threat to the stability and cohesiveness of communities and the rights of individuals. It fights the medical epidemic with prevention and with treatment. It fights ignorance, it fights intolerance, it fights apathy with awareness, commitment and compassion, and it fights alienation, isolation and despair by engaging communities in a focus that emphasizes living with HIV/AIDS, not dying with it. The act was created in the memory of Ryan White, a young teenager who became a national hero in this fight. He was a hemophiliac and contracted HIV through a bad blood transfusion, but Ryan White fought against ignorance, fear and prejudice on behalf of all individuals with HIV/AIDS. Ryan White died on April 8, 1990, at the age of 18. Ten years later the law named after him carries on his legacy. The Ryan White CARE Act has made a tremendous difference in the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS. In my district, which includes much of Ohio's only title I eligible metropolitan area, Ryan White programs provide primary care and support services and the kinds of medication that contain HIV/AIDS into a chronic, rather than an acute illness. There is more to do and Ryan White will continue to play a pivotal role. In Ohio, while AIDS deaths have declined, the incidence of HIV/AIDS has increased dramatically. After declining steadily, the incidence among young gay males is on the rise. HIV/AIDS is expanding into new populations, while continuing to spread in those populations originally at risk. Prevention is vital, treatment is vital, The Ryan White programs are vital. Mr. Speaker, I ask for passage of this legislation. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, perhaps the two most important bills that were to be considered on the July 25 calendar have gone into July 26. We have the opportunity today, thanks to poor planning and bad priorities in this Congress, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the legislation the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) worked so effectively on and was, 10 years ago, signed into law, on July 26 of 1990. So congratulations to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) for his work, as well as to those Members of this Congress that were there then and helped pass this legislation. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of 4920, the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act of 2000. I would like to congratulate both the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland), my colleague, for their long- standing commitment to the 4.5 million Americans with developmental disabilities. The Developmental Disabilities Act has provided the basis for America's disability policy since 1963. The programs addressed in this bill, Mr. Speaker, provide more than a safety net for Americans with developmental disabilities and their families. They are the catalysts that enable these individuals to seek independence in their education, in their lives, and in their work. The legislation before us this morning reauthorizes funding for State councils for disabilities, protection and advocacy systems, and university centers for excellence in developmental disabilities in education and research and service. These programs continue to work with the States to broaden the scope of services and protection on an as-needed basis. H.R. 4920 sets new accountability goals for the DDA programs by requiring each program to set measurable outcomes from which performance evaluations can occur. This will allow compliance within the Department of Health and Human Services with standards set by the Government Performance and Results Act. What I am disappointed to see missing from this bill is the Families of Children With Disabilities Support Act of 1999, a provision championed by my tireless colleague in the Senate, Mr. Harkin of Iowa. This provision passed the Senate last November 1999 to nothing. What this provision may have lacked in its size by comparison to the entire bill was more than made up by its critical importance to American families. The Family Support Program extends funds to the States to establish and improve services for families electing to keep a relative with a developmental disability at home. This profamily program is necessitated by progress. Medical advances have both improved the health and lengthened the lives of individuals with developmental disabilities, placing new burdens on aging parents and existing resources. Yet, the bill we are voting on this morning is marred by the absence of this provision due to procedural tactics being used by members of the Committee on Education and the Workforce. As we gather in this Chamber on the 10th anniversary of the ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act, our collective celebration of the freedom and progress its fostered for so many Americans and their families is tempered and diminished without this very important, crucial provision. Not standing behind the families of individuals with developmental disabilities will eventually affect every component of the developmental disabilities community infrastructure. While I am pleased to support this important legislation to sustain the great strides made by Americans with developmental disabilities, I remain committed, Mr. Speaker, to working in conference to restore the families support protections title to the final bill. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 9 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), one of the real leaders in the House on this whole issue of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and he has continued that leadership in the decade since.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BROWN of OHIO

Mr. BROWN of OHIO. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to yield 30 minutes of my time to the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher) and that he may then yield time as he sees fit.

Mr. BROWN of OHIO. Mr. Speaker, I am in support of the resolution.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise to sound the alarm about a silent war that is going on all over the world, the war between people and infectious diseases. It is not a new war. Since humans first walked the earth, microbes have preyed on us and we have fought back. As recently as the 19th century, the average life span in Europe and North America was 50 years, and the likelihood of dying prematurely from infectious diseases was in most places as high as 40 percent. With the widespread introduction in the 1940s of penicillin and other antibiotics, we thought we had won the war. Finally, we could cure a whole raft of infectious diseases that routinely took human lives across the whole span of a human lifetime, from infancy through the prime of life to old age. A month ago, the World Health Organization issued a report that paints a comprehensive picture of the renewed danger we face from infectious diseases. Microbes are mutating at an alarming rate into strains that too often fail to respond to drugs. Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, director general of the WHO, recently stated, we currently have effective medicines to cure almost every major infectious disease, but we risk losing these valuable drugs, and our opportunity to eventually control many infectious diseases, because of increasing antimicrobial resistance. The report describes how around the world almost all infectious diseases are becoming resistant to existing medicines. In Estonia, Latvia, and parts of Russia and China, over 10 percent of tuberculosis patients have strains resistant to the two most powerful TB medicines. Because of resistance, Thailand has completely lost the means of using three of the most common anti-malaria drugs. In New Delhi, typhoid 10 years ago could be cured with three inexpensive drugs, but now these drugs are largely ineffective. A small but growing number of patients are already showing primary resistance to AZT and other new therapies for HIV-infected people. Patients admitted to hospital wards are especially vulnerable. In the U.S., some 14,000 people become infected and die every year from drug- resistant microbes to which they were exposed in hospitals. As many as 60 percent of infections around the world acquired in hospitals are caused by drug-resistant microbes. In the U.S., overuse of the antibiotics is a key cause of resistance. The more frequently that microbes are exposed to these drugs, the more quickly they develop defenses against them. Patients are demanding and physicians are prescribing drugs for conditions that simply do not require antibiotics. Overuse of antibiotics in the agricultural sector is also contributing to the resistance problem in a big way. Livestock producers use antibiotics to treat sick animals, as they should, but they also use antibiotics to promote more rapid weight gain in healthy animals. Many of the antibiotics used in livestock are also used in humans, including tetracycline and penicillin. In farm animals, prolonged exposure to antibiotics provides a breeding ground for resistant strains of salmonella, E. coli, and other bacteria which are harmful to people. When transferred to people through the food chain, these bacteria can cause dangerous infections that are resistant to drugs. Antibiotic use in livestock is causing resistance in large part because of the sheer volume of antibiotics used in the farm for subtherapeutic purposes, not treating ill animals but making livestock put on weight more rapidly so they are ready for market more quickly. Forty percent of all antibiotics manufactured in the United States are given to animals. Eighty-eight percent of all antibiotics used on- farm are used subtherapeutically, just for weight gain. Among hogs, 93 percent receive antibiotics in their diets at some time during their quote/unquote grower/finisher period. The medical community has been raising concerns about antibiotic use in livestock for decades. Thirty years ago, the Swann Committee in the United Kingdom concluded that antibiotics used in human therapy should not be used as growth promoters in animals. Since that time, mounting scientific evidence has pointed to the dangers of overusing these precious drugs in livestock. It is time, Mr. Speaker, to take a close look at antibiotic use in agriculture, and take decisive action to protect people from resistant microbes that move through the food chain, from animals to our young children to our oldest citizens and to all of us.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I want to thank the gentleman from Virginia for turning his attention to the issue of addiction and for providing this body an opportunity to focus on it. Addiction is the number one killer in the United States. As it happens, the substance that lends addiction that distinction is not heroin but tobacco. Tobacco is responsible for 400,000 deaths a year. Regardless of the substance, though, the message is the same: addiction can kill. The Nation is well served by efforts to combat addiction to killer substances like heroin and tobacco. I appreciate the gentleman's interest in the heroin treatment initiative contained in this bill. I fully support the spirit of the bill as captured in its title. To win the war against drugs, however, we need to pay as much attention to the demand side of the equation as we do to the supply side. Fighting drugs means fighting drug producers and drug dealers. It also means preventing addiction, and it means treating addiction. In the context of this bill, that means expanding treatment options for heroin addiction. Last week, 600,000 Americans used heroin. Last year, 80,000 people were admitted to hospital emergency rooms around the country because of heroin. There is wide agreement among researchers that heroin is the most underreported of all controlled substances in terms of usage. Some researchers believe as many as three million Americans are heroin abusers. And increasingly, those users are younger and younger. In 1980, a street bag of heroin was 4 percent pure. Today the average street bag ranges from 40 to 70 percent purity. The drug is stronger. It can be introduced in the body in more ways and still produce a high. Teenagers who would normally shy away from injecting heroin perceive snorting and inhaling as a safe means of using heroin. They do not think it can kill them. They do not even think it can make an addict of them. They are wrong. Those misconceptions are beginning to show up in the statistics. Substance abuse counselors are reporting it has been years since they have seen so many cases of heroin addiction among teenagers and young adults. Buprenorphine can be part of the solution, but there is more to it than that. If we want to fight heroin addiction, if we want to fight drug addiction, we need to reauthorize the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency, or SAMHSA. SAMHSA has one of the most difficult jobs of any Federal agency, to reduce the demand for illicit drugs and in that way to save lives. I am pleased to be an original cosponsor of legislation to reauthorize SAMHSA, H.R. 4867, introduced by my colleague the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Capps). Mr. Speaker, by reauthorizing SAMHSA this year, we can secure the foundation upon which the success of H.R. 2634 and other legislation devoted to the treatment of drug addiction depends. It is fortunate, then, that the author of H.R. 2634, my respected colleague the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Bliley) is in a position to influence whether this body takes action on the bill that the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Capps) has introduced. The bill of the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Bliley) is a modest and a good step. CBO estimates that it may help 10,000 low-income addicts receive treatment. Unfortunately, the need for heroin treatment surpasses that figure 30 fold. The gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Bliley) I hope will fulfill the promise of H.R. 2634 by working to ensure committee consideration and passage of the SAMHSA reauthorization bill offered by the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Capps) on a timely basis before we go home. With all due respect and gratitude to my friend from Virginia, the real drug addiction treatment act is the SAMHSA reauthorization.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, it is in America's national interests to support and sustain India's development. The Commerce Department identifies India as one of the 10 Big Emerging Markets. With a growing high-tech industry, combined with the support and confidence of American investment, India has positioned itself to be one of the great success stories of the 21st century. India has made tremendous progress in addressing human rights issues. The State Department has praised India for its substantial progress in the area of human rights. It is a strong, vibrant democracy that features an independent judiciary, diverse political parties and a free press, which vigorously assists in the investigation of human rights abuses. This amendment threatens the relationship between the United States and the Republic of India. We should not be punishing countries like India, an example of freedom and democracy in Asia, while rewarding authoritarian governments like China which supports forced labor, which opposes freedom of the press, which opposes freedom of religion. Mr. Chairman, the Burton amendment is a step in the wrong direction for American foreign policy. We should oppose it.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 2 minutes. Mr. Chairman, this amendment prohibits funds in the foreign operations appropriations bill from being used in violation of existing laws against the importation of goods made by forced labor; specifically, the Tariff Act of 1930. It is not a new law, but since this act was passed the U.S. Government has turned a blind eye to the repeated violations of the import of goods made by forced labor overseas. Forced labor violates the rights of workers and undermines pro- democratic forces by providing financial resources and international support to the totalitarian dictators under whom they languish. The labor system, for instance, in the People's Republic of China, known as Lao Gai or reform through labor, imprisons 8 million Chinese in slave camps and mental institutions. The Lao Gai prison systems continues Mao Zedong's politics of despotism. In these work camps prisoners are subjected to beatings, to torture, and to near starvation. The United States imports $70 billion of goods from China, often goods made in these Lao Gai prisons.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. I yield to the gentleman from Alabama.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. I accept that, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Maryland (Mrs. Morella), who was the cosponsor and the cowriter of this amendment last year when the chairman helped us increase tuberculosis spending $5 million more.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to withdraw my amendment.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, before withdrawing the amendment, if I could, I would like to ask, and I will do that and appreciate the good words and the good work already that the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Callahan) has done in the last 3 years. I would like to ask the gentleman from Alabama (Chairman Callahan) if he would yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green), who was in his office and hurried over and would like to say a few words on this issue if he could get some time from the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Callahan). I unfortunately used my time, but I will withdraw the amendment after that if that is possible.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 2 minutes. Mr. Chairman, the threat of tuberculosis is spreading rapidly through the developing world. TB is the greatest infectious killer of adults worldwide. It is the biggest killer of young women. It kills 2 million people per year. Over more than 1,000 people in India die everyday. TB hit an all time high in 1999 with 8 million new cases, 95 percent in developing countries. Mr. Chairman, I would first like to thank the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Callahan) and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) for their good work in increasing the appropriations to tuberculosis in the last 3 years up to $60 million. Our amendment asks for an additional $40 million added to the other infectious diseases component of the Child Survival and Diseases Program. This increase is meant specifically for TB control efforts. This level of spending for health is much lower than any other multilateral development bank despite the fact that the majority of deaths globally from TB and childhood infectious diseases occur in Asia, that is why we are taking dollars from the Asia Development Bank, which does not meet its mission to save the poor, in order to fund a program that will absolutely save millions of lives and preserve communities in the best interests of Asia, in the best interests of Africa, and in the best interests of Latin America, and only in the best interests of the United States where TB is becoming a more and more serious problem. Gro Bruntland, the director general of the World Health Organization has said that tuberculosis is not a medical issue, it is a political issue. Getting Americans engaged in an international medical issue like tuberculosis, even when addressing that issue serves our best interests as a Nation is an uphill battle. Mr. Chairman, we have an opportunity to save millions of lives now and prevent millions of needless deaths in the future. We are asking for $40 million from the Asia Development Bank, a bank that has not done well at serving the poor, and we can clearly save thousands and thousands of lives by upping our contribution to the world TB effort, according to the requests of the World Health Organization of $100 million. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.