Speech #1020003846

Realizing the strong correlation between an STD infection and infection with the AIDS virus. the Centers for Disease Control have recommended AIDS testing in STD centers. This section would require AIDS testing in all those centers receiving Federal dollars. Section 20 would return the United States to a sound public healthbased immigration policy. On June 2. 1987. the U.S. Senate voted 960 to protect the health of the American people by adding the human immunodeflciency virus to the list of "dangerous contagious diseases" for which an immigrant can be excluded from entry into this Nation. In 1987. the Senate unanimously approved my AIDS immigration amendment because it was. and is. good public health policy. In fact. I offered my amendment on the recommendation of the then Surgeon General Dr. Koop and other officials of the Public Health Service. I agreed with General Koop. as did every one of my colleagues. liberal and conservative. Democrat and Republican. that the public health of this Nation will be at risk if the United States continued to allow immigrants with AIDS into this country. Incredibly. Mr. President. it has come to my attention that officials at the Department of Health and Human Services will now remove the AIDS immigration prohibition as well as the prohibitions now placed on all people with sexually transmitted diseases who attempt to enter this country. I had assumed that every possible political concession had been made to the AIDS lobby. and to the homosexual rights movement which fuels it. but what is now going on at HHS is beyond belief. Is it not enough that the public health agenda of America has been torn apart by the AIDS movement. and that innocent childrenlike Ryan Whitecontinue to die because the lobby and its allies promote civil rights rather than public safety? Apparently not. because some in the administration are bowing to the incessant cries of the homosexual rights movement to throw open the floodgates which our sensible immigration restrictions have previously kept shut. The administration at first attempted to appease the homosexual rights fanatics by creating a special immigration waiver policy. Under this policy people with HIV may enter the country for up to 30 days to attend medical conferences. receive medical treatment. or vistit family members. In order to gain this waiver. however. the infected individuals must answer question about their medical condition. including whether or not they are infected with HIV. Of course. the homosexuals were not happyand they will never be until homosexuality is elevated to the civil rights equivalent of race and religionthey cried discrimination. They claimed that America is stigmatizing homosexuals and that everyone should be allowed to come into this country without disclosing his or her medical condition. At the behest of the Presidents Commission on AIDS and HHS Secretary Louis Sullivan. legislation was introduced in the House to allow HHS to remove the HIV immigration restriction. In addition. on April 13. 1990. the administration issued a special 10day visa to allow anyone who wants to attend socalled medical conferences. such as the AIDS conferences in San Francisco last year. to come into the country. What is the logic in treating HIV differently from other dangerous diseases when the great differences between AIDS and the others is that AIDS kills every time? Mr.