Bi-partisan co-chairs of Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus urge Trump to take action to end epidemic
Throughout his campaign and tenure as president thus far, Donald Trump has remained relatively mum on the issue of HIV/AIDS.
But in a letter sent to the president on Tuesday, the co-chairs of the Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus urged him to continue decades of effort to make battling the epidemic a public health priority at the federal level.
“As co-chairs of the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus, we write to encourage you to continue the long-standing American commitment to the fight against HIV/AIDS, both here at home and abroad,” the letter, signed by Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), reads.
“The Trump administration has a simple choice to make,” Lee said in a statement to Mic. "The United States can either continue building on our bipartisan legacy on HIV/AIDS, or we can retreat from our leadership in the world.“
In the letter, Lee and Ros-Lehtenin call on Trump to continue support for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief — a federal initiative created by former President George W. Bush — which they laud for increasing the number of people receiving treatment for the deadly disease by "nearly 11.5 million” over the last two decades. Read more (3/14/17 4:09 PM)