July 24, 2008

 

Global HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Bill Is

America’s Largest Commitment Ever

 

$48 Billion Measure Helps Restore American Moral Leadership in the World

 

Key Points:

 

  • Today, the House will consider concurring with the Senate amendments to H.R. 5501, Lantos-Hyde U.S. Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization, America’s largest commitment ever to fighting this global epidemic.  This version is very similar to the original bill passed by the House in April.

 

  • House passage will send the bill directly to the President’s desk for his signature.  Enactment of this historic legislation will be one of the key achievements of the New Direction Congress. 

 

  • Since the HIV/AIDS epidemic began, 20 million men, women, and children have died from the disease.  Forty million around the globe are HIV-positive.  Each and every day, another 6,000 people become infected with HIV.  There is a moral imperative to combat this epidemic.

 

  • The bill’s goals include:  by 2013, preventing 12 million new HIV infections; providing medical and nonmedical care for 12 million people (including 5 million orphans); and training 140,000 new health care workers.

 

  • In May 2003, on a bipartisan basis, the Congress enacted the landmark U.S. Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act (PL 108-25) – authorizing $15 billion over five years.  (It was based on the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), unveiled in January 2003.)  Since then, Congress has in fact appropriated $19.3 billion. This program has saved millions of lives around the world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. 

 

  • This bill reauthorizes and improves this program – authorizing $48 billion over the next five years.  This is $18 billion more than the $30 billion President Bush originally requested.  (The bill also authorizes $2 billion for Indian safety and health care programs.)  The bill is a carefully-crafted bipartisan compromise – worked out between Congressional Democrats, Congressional Republicans, and the Bush Administration.      

 

  • In the first five years of the U.S. response to the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, U.S. policy was driven by the urgency of an emergency response.  Under this bill, the U.S. will develop and implement strategies to transition from the emergency phase to long-term sustainability that can be maintained by the host countries.   

 

  • The bill strengthens health care delivery systems in host countries and rebuilds health care workforces to boost host country capacities to reach and provide HIV/AIDS services to populations that are difficult to reach.

 

 

Following is an overview of some key features of this bipartisan bill.

 

Key Goals of HIV/AIDS Policy

 

The bill sets out targets for the global HIV/AIDS program, which are very similar to the targets in the original House-passed bill.  The targets include the following:

 

·        Preventing 12 million new HIV infections.

 

·        Treatment goals under the bill will rise above 2 million persons as funding for bilateral HIV/AIDS programs increase and if per-person comprehensive costs of treatment decrease.  This should ensure a treatment target of at least 3 million people.

 

·        Supporting medical and nonmedical care for 12 million people infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS, including support for 5 million orphans.

 

·        Helping countries in their effort to achieve 80 percent access to counseling, testing and treatment to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child.

 

·        Helping countries to achieve access for care for children with HIV in proportion to their numbers among those who are infected with HIV.

 

·        Helping countries to expand their health care workforce with the goal of training and retaining at least 140,000 new health care workers.

 

Key Features of HIV/AIDS Policy

 

·        Overturns the controversial and ineffective 1/3 abstinence-only requirement that applies to global HIV/AIDS prevention funding and instead provides a new requirement for evidence-based, “balanced funding” for abstinence, fidelity, and condoms.  (It also requires a report to Congress if abstinence and fidelity programs fall below half of prevention spending in a given country.)

 

·        Requires that more than half of bilateral HIV/AIDS funding go towards treatment and care of HIV/AIDS patients.

 

·        Increases the authorization for U.S. contributions to the multilateral Global Fund from $1 billion to $2 billion per year.

 

·        Provides an increased focus on women and girls and the factors that put them at greater risk for HIV in many countries.

 

·        Authorizes HIV/AIDS programs to include linkages to food and nutrition programs to support individuals with HIV/AIDS and those who are in treatment for the disease.

 

·        Removes the statutory bar to HIV-infected persons from receiving visas to come to the United States, either as immigrants, students, or tourists.

 

·        Strengthens language on countering HIV/AIDS for victims of sex trafficking.

 

·        Strengthens support for health capacity (in terms of both staff levels and infrastructure).

 

·        Puts global AIDS programs on the road to greater sustainability by focusing on country-driven national strategies and by allowing for, though not mandating, the creation of compact agreements.

 

·        Strengthens language on countering HIV/AIDS for victims of sex trafficking.

 

·        Authorizes $39 billion in funding for programs to combat HIV/AIDS for FY 2009-2013 out of the overall $50 billion authorized by the bill.

 

Key Features of Tuberculosis Policy

 

·        Creates linkages and requires patient referrals between HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis programs.

 

·        Creates a new strategy to stop tuberculosis by enhancing testing and treatment in countries with high TB rates.

 

·        Creates new strategies for attacking MDR and XDR forms of drug-resistant TB.

 

·        Provides assistance for the World Health Organization Stop Tuberculosis Partnership to meet WHO goals to cut TB deaths and infections in half by 2016.

 

·        Authorizes $4 billion in funding for programs to combat TB for FY 2009-2013 out of the overall $50 billion authorized by the bill.

 

Key Features of Malaria Policy

 

·        Requires the President to develop a comprehensive 5-year strategy to combat malaria globally and strengthen United States leadership against this disease.

 

·        Creates a new Coordinator of United States Government Activities to Combat Malaria Globally.

 

·        Authorizes United States contributions to the WHO Roll Back Malaria Partnership to improve capacity of countries with high rates of malaria to address the disease.

 

·        Supports Center for Disease Control and National Institutes of Health clinical research for new diagnostics, treatments, and interventions to prevent, cure and control malaria.

 

·        Authorizes $5 billion in funding for programs to combat malaria for FY 2009-2013 out of the overall $50 billion authorized by the bill.

 

 

 

Indian Safety and Health Programs

 

·        Due to the adoption of an amendment on the Senate Floor on July 16, out of the bill’s overall $50 billion authorization, authorizes $2 billion for an Emergency Fund for Indian Safety and Health, to be used for Indian law enforcement, health care services, and water projects.

 

 

 

 

 

July 24, 2008