Sanders Voted to Gut HIV Funding Instead Went with HRA Gun Bill
This posting came from Twitter and the particulars have been checked as far as information is been available to this blog from 1996 of who voted for or against this particular bill. The writer of the below post is included in the post. Since this blog is publishing this post and this intro. the name comes second and the story first. I believe the owner of the article was doing research not on HIV funding but on gun legislation and Mr. Sanders since I believe this author’s writings indicate he is against the present state of gun control (which is too strict in NY but zero in other states). The article was edited for the authors’ other tweeter info and a reference about the President at the time signing the bill into law which was not clear since the amendment failed, so I imagine he referred to the bill with the NRA amendment. That sounded confusing and I saw of no value. In 1996 President Clinton was the seating President. The author addresses regrets for the bill eventually passing but he did not elaborate that if the bill did not passed the way the NRA and Sanders wanted it there would have been no funding or delay funding for HIV which always been on the back track of research compare to Ebola (A cure in record speed because it was attacked as soon as it hit the US), etc., etc. and on those times there was no funding secured for HIV like other diseases and only through deals with the GOP which was against HIV funding, gays and money given for most health causes, any legislation but particularly HIV funding was a compromised and never a guarantee.
Any questions, comments can be addressed to this blog or to the writer of the post.
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You wouldn’t call him a Second Amendment zealot.
But, from the moment that he announced his candidacy in the 2016 presidential race, Democrat-for-now Bernie Sanders has been in the crosshairs for a number of votes that no doubt elicited backslaps, fist pumps and high fives at the headquarters of the National Rifle Association.
Sanders’s pro-gun reform critics typically highlight three of these — his votes:
against the Brady handgun bill; for allowing Amtrak passengers to check their guns onto trains; and
for giving immunity to gun dealers and manufacturers from lawsuits by victims of gun violence and their families.
What seems to have eluded most observers so far is Bernie Sanders’s vote for an NRA-backed House Appropriations Committee amendment that totally gutted a 1990s Centers for Disease Control research program that studied the causes and effects of all gun-related injuries and deaths — including those attributable to violence.
The amendment killed this new CDC program “in the crib” — and instituted a de facto ban on CDC gun research that continues to this day.
Indeed, in the wake of Charleston — 200 mass shootings ago — the House Appropriations Committee voted to extend the research ban by defeating an amendment that would have restored funding for the program.
In recent weeks, there have been renewed calls to restore funding, including from a coalition of nine medical associations and more than 2,000 physicians that held a press conference yesterday— just hours before San Bernardino — to call gun violence what it is: a public health crisis.
It all started in 1996, when NRA extremists went after the CDC program — demagogically branding the CDC’s publication of any scientific research results showing the negative impacts of gun access and ownership as propaganda for gun control.
Rep. Jay Dickey (R-AR), the NRA’s point person on the Appropriations Committee, pushed through an amendment cutting funding for the CDC by $2.6M — the exact amount that the previous year’s federal budget had appropriated for the CDC program on gun research.
Once the bill got to the floor of the full House, on 11 July 1996, Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) offered an amendment to reverse the Dickey amendment — and to restore full funding for the CDC program.
Lowey demanded and received a recorded vote on her amendment.
Bernie Sanders voted against the Lowey amendment — i.e., he voted for gutting the CDC program on gun research, as the NRA wanted. The amendment failed.
Lowey amendment, see item #41 here.
John Lumea adds:
The roll call showing Sanders’ No vote is here.
Bernie Sanders needs to explain this vote — now.
Worth noting: Voted out of Congress in 2001, Jay Dickey now says that he regrets his role and says that Congress should repeal the law he pushed for the NRA. No such regrets from Sanders.
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