From: MPetrelis@aol.com Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2000 22:45:00 EDT Subject: AIDS lobbyist Tom Sheridan gets a complaint from women is came my way today. For more info on Tom Sheridan's AIDS PAC go to www.tray.com and www.washblade.com. Boths sites have extensive, easy to search files. Just key in Sheridan and AIDS PAC. Then read what comes up. --mp Subj: Lobbyist Buys Off Senators Seeking Re-election, Women and Children Ignored Date: 7/31/00 11:29:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time From: womenforfreechoice@hotmail.com (tricia jacobs) To: EBenjamin@legal-aid.org, EAT02@health.state.ny.us, ecooper@MAIL.LAWNET.FORDHAM.EDU, EJA03@health.state.ny.us, [Replies: womenforfreechoice@hotmail.com] Dear friends, Once again we have been forgotten as politicans who pretend to care for us instead are bought by the highest bidder. While we were all concerned earlier this year that right wing members of the House would attach mandatory testing provisions to the Ryan White CARE Act, it turns out that we have avoided attempts to stigmatize those of us living with HIV/AIDS but we almost failed to take note of what has occurred in the Senate. The American AIDS Political Action Committee (AIDS PAC), run by Tom Sheridan, the city of San Francisco's top AIDS lobbyist, suspiciously contributed heavily to the authors of the Senate Ryan White CARE Act reauthorization during the time in which the bill was being drafted. The Senate bill, S. 2311, contains a controversial provision which guarantees that the city of San Francisco will continue to receive substantially more federal funds per AIDS case than any other city in America. According to the General Accounting Office, San Francisco currently receives twice the amount of federal dollars per AIDS case as every other city. The Senate bill will ensure that this funding disparity continues for the next five years by enshrining into law that the city may not receive less than two percent of the funding it received in the prior year. Mr. Sheridan gave two $5,000 checks to Senator Jim Jeffords, the author of the bill, on March 2, during which time Sheridan and his staff were working closely with the Senators' staffs. Sheridan also gave $1,000 to Senator Kennedy, the bill's co-author, during the drafting stages and then another $1,000 the day before the bill was introduced. Less than 48 hours later, Sheridan wrote another $1,000 check to Kennedy. Within a week of the release of a draft bill by the House of Representatives in April that contained a provision that would have brought San Francisco into parity with other cities (a 10 percent reduction in the city's funding per year over 5 years), Sheridan gave another $1,000 to Kennedy in an apparent attempt to shore up the support for his client with the Senate. (These contributions can be verified at the following site: http://www.tray.com/cgi-win/_paccontr.exe? ) While the bill passed by the House of Representatives last week continues the special funding advantage for San Francisco, it is far less than that contained within the Senate bill (25 percent reduction over 5 years rather than the Senate's ten percent). Interesting, neither author of the House version of the CARE Act, Republican Tom Coburn or Democrat Henry Waxman received any contributions from the AIDS PAC despite the fact that their bill has been more widely acclaimed for many of its improvements in providing increased access to HIV/AIDS care to all those who are infected and more equitable funding for all states and cities. It is obvious that Sheridan is using his AIDS PAC to curry favor with members of the Senate running for re-election this year and, in turn, deliver for his client— the city of San Francisco. All AIDS activists should be alarmed by this course of events. Clearly those of us who can barely afford to pay for our costly AIDS medications can not write $5,000 checks to get the attention of Senator Jeffords or Kennedy. Like all of you, I know HIV infected women who have lost their husbands to AIDS and are left to care for their children alone while they are on their deathbed. There are also our friends who live in rural areas where they have chosen to spend their last days with their families, but in so doing, must wait for someone else to die from AIDS before they can have access to the AIDS Drug Assistance Program. The Senate bill continues to steal from these forgotten victims while continuing to prop up the AIDS industry in San Francisco which can afford to pay lavish salaries, unnecessary services like bowling nights, and contribute tens of thousands of dollars to political campaigns that have nothing to do with HIV/AIDS. We may not have the money to write checks or hire lobbyists to get the attention of these Senators, but as well know, there are other ways to get their attention ;) Tricia ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com ----------------------- Headers -------------------------------- Return-Path: <.womenforfreechoice@hotmail.com> ================== Michael Petrelis Welcome to AIDS-STATISTICS www.AIDS-statistics.com 2215-R Market Street, #413 San Francisco, CA 94114