Lineup features Latin fiesta, "sizzling" fashion show, and beach party
September 29, 2006
The Department of Health and Human Services spent over $400,000 on this conference held in Hollywood, Florida. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that activists at the event claimed that President and Congress had “cut” money for HIV prevention campaigns and had not boosted funding for AIDS treatment. "Where's the money?" asked Damon Dozier, government relations director for the National Minority AIDS Council, the sponsor of the conference. Perhaps he was unaware that his own conference-- which featured a Latin Fiesta, a “sizzling” fashion show, a beach party, a number of receptions, and lodging at a beach side resort-- was siphoning hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funds away from Americans living with HIV who do not have access to life saving medical care.
The attendance count of federal employees attending this conference has reached 92. Here is a breakdown by agency:
5 employees from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
14 employees from the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
67 employees from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
5 employees from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) plus one NIH contractor
The 92 employees and over $405,000 in federal funds spent on this conference exceed the 78 HHS employees who attended and $315,000 spent on the International AIDS Conference in Toronto, Canada held just a month earlier.
The Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management is also investigating how many federal employees attended two other federally funded AIDS conferences that occurred between these two widely attended meetings: “The 15th Anniversary of the Ryan White CARE Act - Grantee Conference and 9th Annual Clinical Conference Update” held August 28- 31 in Washington, DC and the “INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE COSTS AND BENEFITS OF HIV/AIDS INTERVENTIONS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES” held September 13- 15 in Boston. MA. There were also two other AIDS conferences supported by CDC in May of this year. That means that during the last five months, there have been at least six federally supported AIDS conferences that have cost millions of dollars.
