U.S. Spending $470,000+ to Send 116 Federal Employees to Mexico City AIDS Conference

At least 116 U.S. federal employees will join 22,000 people attending this week’s International AIDS Conference in Mexico City.

 

Taxpayers will contribute almost a half-a-million dollars to the event, an amount that could have been spent to provide life-saving medication to every American on a waiting list for AIDS drugs or to prevent over 50,000 newborns from becoming infected with HIV.

 

Click the following link for a copy of the Senate oversight report on the 2008 International AIDS Conference.

 

In addition to some scientific and scholarly workshops, the event will feature a “Sex Workers Mini Film Festival,” and a session led by a pro-prostitution group that brags of being “proud” of its work and proud to bring in “lots of tourist dollars” for Thailand. There will also be a workshop on the “Sexy Life” after HIV infection and one entitled “Good Catholics Use Condoms: How to Answer the Tough Questions Surrounding HIV/AIDS Prevention and Religion,” which will be moderated by a woman whose D.C.-based group favors legalized abortion, gay marriage, and contraception  — all positions opposed by the Catholic Church.

 

Among the attendees will be at least 116 federal employees from the:

 

·                National Institutes for Health (NIH),

·                Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),

·                Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA),

·                Food and Drug Administration (FDA),

·                U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID),

·                Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC), ),

·                Department of Defense (DOD),

·                Census Bureau, and

·                Peace Corps.

 

 

·                 $165,000 for hotel and per diem costs;

·                 $100,000 for registration;

·                 $86,000 for airfare from DC, Atlanta, and overseas locations; and

·                 $9,500 for a U.S. government-wide booth

 

The XVII International AIDS Conference occurring this week in Mexico City, Mexico, is organized by the International AIDS Society and is expected to cost $25 million and attract 22,000 conference-goers.  It will cost U.S. taxpayers at least $473,095 to send the planned delegation of over 100 government employees to this single conference, according to figures collected and published in a report by the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security minority staff.

 

Senator Tom Coburn, a practicing physician who has cared for patients living with HIV/AIDS, and ranking member of the Senate Federal Financial Management subcommittee issued the report and stated, “This is a simple question of priorities when it comes to addressing HIV/AIDS—talk or treatment?  Conference or care?  While the waiting list for federal employees to attend the AIDS conference may now exceed the waiting list for patients seeking AIDS drugs, most taxpayers would probably agree that providing life saving treatment to 35 of their fellow Americans is a better expenditure of funds than paying to send 114 government employees on a trip to Mexico.  No one will die from not being able to attend a conference, but the same is not true for those who are living with HIV/AIDS and can not access treatment.”

 

Dr. Coburn encourages anyone who has examples of government waste to submit the information to his Web site tip line.

 

Permalink