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On the eve of scheduled candlelight prayer vigils outside of her Davenport office, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has announced she will be releasing her plan to fight HIV/AIDS both domestically and globally.
“Sen. Clinton has stepped up to the plate, and released a plan to fight AIDS which, if enacted, will help turn the tide of the AIDS epidemic worldwide,” said Kaytee Riek, a grassroots organizer for Iowans for AIDS Action. “She joins [Sen. Barack] Obama and [former Sen. John] Edwards in calling for adequate funding and effective policies to fight AIDS at home and abroad, and today, we are praying for all other candidates — Republican and Democrat — to do the same.”
Iowans for AIDS Action had planned to target Clinton’s Davenport headquarters to bring attention to the fact that she had not yet released a comprehensive plan. Now, according to Riek, the vigil will continue in the same location, but will be held to thank the candidate — as well as Obama and Edwards — for releasing detailed plans and leading on the issue.
All three Democratic candidates are pledging to earmark $50 billion over a five-year span on global initiatives to combat HIV/AIDS. President George W. Bush and his administration have budgeted $30 billion for that same time-frame. In addition to the monetary increase, plans from the Democratic candidates differ from the current administration by not limiting prevention strategies to abstinence-only sex education.
Clinton is slated to discuss her plan today while campaigning in South Carolina. According to information provided today from the campaign, the plan not only targets global concerns but “would especially help groups in the U.S. that have seen HIV infection rates rise over the past several years, including African Americans and gay men, and address the continued risk in Latino communities and among women.”
She proposes doubling the HIV/AIDS research budget within the National Institutes of Health to $5.2 billion annually, including the U.S. contribution toward finding a vaccine. Edwards and Obama have also pledged to strengthen and expand, respectively, such research. All three candidates support federal financing for needle exchange programs. In addition, as a part of their overall health care plans, the three candidates have pledged to improve medical care and treatment for citizens living with HIV/AIDS.
The vigils planned for tonight by Iowans for AIDS Action will continue as planned and will target the campaign offices of Republican presidential hopefuls Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee.
“The AIDS crisis is a non-partisan issue, and we expect the next president to continue and expand upon the progress made during the Bush administration,” said Riek.
In his 2003 State of the Union address, Bush announced the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a $15 billion over five years budget to treat 2 million people with AIDS in 15 focus countries, and prevent 7 million new infections. In 2008, that program will likely receive $6 billion in funding from Congress.
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