Subject: AIDS lobbyist Tom Sheridan gets a complaint from women
From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2000 22:45:00 EDT

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:   [email-masked] (tricia jacobs)
To: [email-masked], [email-masked], 
[email-masked], [email-masked], 

[Replies: [email-masked]]

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
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Michael Petrelis
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