FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                 
July 23, 2007          

National Black Chamber of Commerce Ad Highlights Senator Clinton’s Withholding of AIDS Funding for African Americans in the South

Ad Runs the Day of Charleston Democratic Presidential Debate

WASHINGTON - In advance of today’s Democratic presidential debate in Charleston, the National Black Chamber of Commerce (www.nationalbcc.org) ran a full page ad in Charleston Post & Courier on Senator Hillary Clinton’s efforts to withhold of HIV/AIDS funding for rural and Southern areas.  

As was reported in the Washington Post on August 23, 2006, Senator Clinton led the effort to gut provisions in the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Modernization Act of 2006 (S. 2823) which would have fixed the increasingly unfair and outdated funding formulas that hurt African Americans, particularly in the rural South.  The bipartisan remedy to this problem, which would have ensured funding would follow patient caseloads instead of short-changing African Americans, had been supported by 19 of the 20 Senators on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Senator Clinton was the lone “no” vote. 

In spite of her voting record, Senator Clinton conveniently announced a new position at a Democratic presidential debate in June at Howard University, a historically black college, that HIV/AIDS funding does not adequately reach African Americans.

“I only wish Senator Clinton had voted the same way last year in the U.S. Senate, when she had an opportunity to make a difference,” said NBCC President and CEO Harry Alford.  “She won’t be able to undo this damage from the campaign trail,” he added.

In a letter on July 11 to Senator Clinton, Alford wrote, “I respectfully ask that you bolster your newfound enthusiasm for correcting the growing disparities in HIV/AIDS funding by actively working to undo the damage of your efforts last year.  If you’re truly seeking to lead, please introduce new legislation that would ensure that the Title I funding formulas in the Ryan White CARE Act follow the HIV/AIDS caseload with no more unfair set-asides and end the injustice that has cost lives and harmed the nation’s integrity.”

To view the advertisement in its entirety, please visit the website at: www.nationalbcc.org

The NBCC is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, nonsectarian organization dedicated to the economic empowerment of African American communities. This business association represents 95,000 Black owned businesses and provides an advocacy that reaches all 1 million Black owned businesses. 190 affiliated chapters are locally based throughout the nation as well as international affiliate chapters based in Bahamas, Brazil, Colombia, Ghana and Jamaica. Businesses and individuals may also choose to be direct members with the national office.