Mr. President. I rise in strong support of the amendment to prohibit the administration from removing HIV from the list of immigrant conditions at this time. The amendment before us does three important things. First. it prohibits for 90 days the Secretary of Health and Human Services from removing HIV from the list of contagious diseases for which persons can be denied entry into the United States. Second. it requires the Secretary of HHS to assess the impact that lifting the HIV ban would have on Federal. State. local and private insurance health care costs. More importantly. it also requests a comparison of the anticipated health care costs associated with entry of HIVinfected immigrants and those costs associated with immigrants suffering from other serious health conditionsdiabetes. cancer. heart disease. end stage renal disease. and so forth. Finally. it requires the Attorney General to evaluate and report to Congress the effectiveness and enforcement of existing laws which supposedly prevent persons who are likely to become public charges from entering or remaining in the United States. I am not a public health expert. and I dont agree with some of my colleagues that Congress is the best place in which to decide epidemiology.
Keywords matched
immigrant immigrants