Sphinx Cover Story
HHS SECRETARY SULLIVAN SALUTED BY HIS FRATERNITY Alpha Phi Alpha men across the nation beamed with pride when a member of our Brotherhood was selected to serve in the Cabinet of the President of the United States. The fourth Alpha Brother to achieve cabinet rank. Brother Louis W. Sullivan's appointment gave credence to the dream of a kinder, gentler national government. Brother Sullivan received the Fraternity's highest honor. The Alpha Award of Merit, at the 1989 Convention in San Antonio, Texas. Earlier in the spring. General President Ponder joined Alpha Chapters in the national capitol area in a special tribute to this visionary servant of all mankind. WASHINGTON, D.C.—"If we are to achieve the President's goal of a 'kinder, gentler America,' it's going to depend on what we do in Health and Human Services." These were the words of Dr. Louis W. Sullivan, new Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, at a reception sponsored by three Washington area chapters of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity here at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library. Dr. Sullivan, who said he shares the President's goal, told the audience of some 300 that 80 to 90 percent of the effort would come through the agency he heads because of the nature of its programs in comparison with those of other departments such as Defense, Agriculture, Interior, or Commerce. He said those departments have other functions. Health and Human Services is the largest Federal agency, controlling 35 percent of the nation's $1.1 trillion budget or $27 billion, Dr. Sullivan declared. "This agency affects the life of every American every day," asserted the only black Cabinet member in the Bush Administration. Dr. Sullivan, himself a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, said his agency handles more than 250 programs including the Social Security Administration; the Health Care Financing Administration; the Public Health Service, which includes the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institutes of Health, the National Library of Medicine, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Indian Health Service, among others. The agency spends $1.1 million a day Implementing welfare reform legislation, passed last year by Congress, is among Dr. Sullivan's chief concerns. He said this was the first significant legislation in two decades to offer realistic opportunity to those on AFDC and other welfare programs to learn job skills, to achieve an educaThe Sphinx/Winter 1989
General President Ponder presents the Alpha Award of Merit to Brother Sullivan, head of the nation's largest federal agency the US. department of Health & Human services.
tion or obtain a GED, or the equivalent of a high school diploma. "We are very much committed to the successful implementation of this legislation because it affects so many of our people in very significant ways," the HHS Secretary added. Dr. Sullivan said Blacks have a great stake in this effort because of the high number of single-parent families and because one-third of Black Americans live at the poverty level. Dr. Sullivan, who was President of Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta before joining the Administration, said: "Secondly, we want to work to improve the health status of the population in general." He noted that while the United States spends 11 percent of its gross national product on health care—a larger amount than any other industrialized country—the nation has growing health problems. "In spite of the fact that we spend $500 million a year for health care, including the private sector, we rank nineteenth in the world among industrialized nations in infant mortality. Right here in Washington, D.C. we have one of the highest infant mortality rates in the country,
around 20 infant deaths per 1,000 live births. "We have half the AIDS cases in the world. We have a severe problem of drug abuse in our society that we certainly have not come to grips with effectively. And we have about 10 major risk factors that cause between 50 and 60 percent of the premature deaths in our society," Dr. Sullivan continued. He cited 300,000 deaths per year from lung cancer, related to cigarette smoking. He said Blacks have more lung cancer, a higher incidence of hypertension, and deaths from stroke, heart disease, and diabetes. Dr. Sullivan said minorities in general, Blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans, in particular, have one and one-half times the death rate of whites. With the amount of expenditures noted, he said, "this should not exist." He charged that what this means is that funds are not being spent equitably. Dr. Sullivan said the disproportionate death rate and disabilities among minorities was not because of genetics. Instead, this stems from poverty Continued on Page 14
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