Show your support for the new Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus

Sep 12th, 2011 1:17 PM UTC
By Ted Brennan

Three outstanding Congressional leaders in the House of Representatives have just announced the establishment of the Congressional Caucus on HIV/AIDS. The purpose of the Caucus is to create an effective forum by which this bipartisan group of Congressional members can address the significant issues surrounding HIV/AIDS through regular events, briefings, conferences and other means designed to bring broader attention and better focus to this critical issue.

Family supported by the Mothers 2 Mothers HIV/AIDS program, funded by PEPFAR

This Thursday, September 15, Caucus Co-Chairs Representatives Trent Franks, R-Ariz., Barbara Lee, D-Calif. and James McDermott, D-Wash. will host a press conference in Washington, D.C. to officially launch the Congressional Caucus on HIV/AIDS. If you’re in town, we encourage you to attend the event. It is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. in the House Triangle (located just outside of the Capitol Building). ONE members, we’d love if you could make it. We want to see a sea of ONE T-shirts, hats and wristbands!

RSVP for the event here: http://act.one.org/event/GeneralEvent/9984

In addition to Reps. Franks, Lee and McDermott, additional speakers include:

Mr. Michel Sidibé - Executive Director of UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Mr. Jeffrey Crowley - Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy and Senior Advisor on Disability Policy at the White House.

Amb. Eric Goosby - United States Global AIDS Coordinator, leading all US Government international HIV/AIDS efforts.

Michael John Gerson - ONE US Advocacy Adviser and columnist for the Washington Post. Mr. Gerson served as President George W. Bush’s chief speechwriter from 2001 until June 2006, as a senior policy advisor from 2000 through June 2006, and was instrumental in the development of the Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

Ronald Johnson - Vice President of Policy & Advocacy, AIDS United

Kent Hill - Senior vice president of International Programs Group at World Vision. He is the former president of Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, Massachusetts.

Since the caucus is only as strong as it membership, we ask everyone to contact their representatives to urge them to join this caucus. Any questions can be directed to me, ted.brennan@one.org or Maryamu Aminu, maryamu.aminu@one.org, at ONE.

TAGS: HIV/AIDS, Members of Congress, ONE