dr. mohammed akhter. dr. akhter is the director of the d.c. department of health. dr. akhter has served as the executive director of the national medical association, executive director of the american public health association and commissioner of public health for the district of columbia. he's also a professor at howard university college of medicine and the senior associate dean for public and international health at howard. one of dr. akhter's stated goals is expanding hiv services including making them available on demand. dr. akhter thank you so much for being with us. >> good morning. good morning, chairman, sanders. appreciate the opportunity to be here. i want to thank you for holding these hearings, and i'm honored to be here to testify in support of your bill 1138. we thank you for all the work that you have done in the past. i know for many years that you have been always a tireless advocate for the american people's health and want to make sure that people have these services available, accessible and affordable to them. and i think this bill is continuatio

dr. mohammad akhter. dr. akhter is director of the d.c. department of health. dr. akhter has served as executive director of the national medical association, executive director of the american public health association and commissioner of public health of the district of columbia and he has been a professor at howard university college of medicine and senior associate dean for public and international health. one of dr. akhter's stated goals is expanding hiv services including making them available on demand. dr. akhter, thank you for being with us. >> good morning, chairman sanders. appreciate the opportunity to be here. i want to thank you for holding these hearings and i am honored to be here to testify in support of your bill 1138. we thank you for all work you have done in the past. for many years, you have been always an advocate for the american people and want to make sure people have these services available and affordable to them. i think this bill is a continuation of your lifelong effort in making sure people have the access to the medication people so

dr. akhter, for all the work that you're doing. our next panelist is frank allman, jr. he is a direct chairman on the association of people with aids. he also serves on the board for the council. he is the commissioner of the public health division on std, hiv/aids and the bureau of hiv program services for the department of health. he launched the face of the aids project in 1999 which spawned two books and a touring pho