[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1567 Introduced in House (IH)]







                                    


107th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1567

   To encourage the provision of multilateral debt cancellation for 
 countries eligible to be considered for assistance under the Heavily 
 Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative or heavily affected by HIV/
                     AIDS, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 24, 2001

  Ms. Lee (for herself and Ms. Waters) introduced the following bill; 
       which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To encourage the provision of multilateral debt cancellation for 
 countries eligible to be considered for assistance under the Heavily 
 Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative or heavily affected by HIV/
                     AIDS, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) According to the United Nations, economic and social 
        factors contribute to the spread of HIV/AIDS, which now infects 
        an average of 16,000 people every day.
            (2) Due to the debt crisis in the majority of impoverished 
        countries, substantially more money is spent on debt repayment 
        each year than on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs.
            (3) Structural adjustment programs in the developing world, 
        in an attempt to enable the impoverished nations to repay their 
        debt, have required governments to impose failed and often 
        harmful policies including charging user fees for the use of 
        medical clinics. These user fees can create an obstacle to 
        effective prevention and treatment programs.
            (4) In Kenya, when user fees were imposed at Nairobi's 
        Sexually Transmitted Disease clinics, attendance decreased 35-
        60 percent.
            (5) User fees have also been shown to decrease the use of 
        health clinics in Mozambique, the Congo, Ghana, and Zimbabwe.
            (6) Cuts in health clinic budgets, required by structural 
        adjustment programs, may also contribute to the spread of HIV/
        AIDS.
            (7) Structural adjustment programs have also contributed to 
        internal and international labor migration. Labor migration is 
        associated with increase in HIV transmission rates in Senegal, 
        Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, and Kenya.
            (8) The HIV/AIDS pandemic will result in tens of millions 
        of orphaned children worldwide, creating an unprecedented 
        strain on the world's economic resources and relief efforts.
            (9) Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, 
        stated in 1999 that ``the impact of AIDS is no less destructive 
        than that of warfare itself, and by some measures, far worse''.
            (10) Many of the same nations in Sub-Saharan Africa which 
        are crushed beneath the weight of foreign debt are experiencing 
        catastrophic loss of life and negative economic growth due 
        largely to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
            (11) The decision of the G-8 countries at the Cologne 
        Summit in 1999 to reduce by $100,000,000,000 the debt of the 
        countries listed by the World Bank and the International 
        Monetary Fund (IMF) as Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs) 
        (which combined owe approximately $220,000,000,000 in debt) is 
        a measure for which only 22 have qualified. These countries 
        have seen their annual debt service reduced by an average of 26 
        percent, a level of reduction which is neither allowing these 
        countries a sustainable exit from debt, nor freeing up 
        substantial resources to combat poverty and the AIDS pandemic.
            (12) Per capita government expenditure on health care in 
        most African countries is below $10, and the per capita share 
        of debt service to foreign creditors is up to 5 times as high 
        as public health expenditure.
            (13) The Congress enacted section 596 of the Foreign 
        Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs 
        Appropriations Act, 2001. This demonstrated the political 
        commitment to eliminate user fees for primary health care and 
        education.
            (14) A large-scale program of multilateral and bilateral 
        debt cancellation explicitly linked to HIV/AIDS control would 
        have minimal impact on creditor country taxpayers and budgets.
            (15) The active participation of all stakeholders in the 
        epidemic, in the process of negotiating debt cancellation for 
        HIV/AIDS prevention and care, is a precondition for the 
        implementation of effective programs.
            (16) The United States has shown good faith by providing 
        $435,000,000 in fiscal year 2001 for bilateral debt 
        cancellation and multilateral debt reduction. This action 
        should encourage international financial institutions to match 
        the debt cancellation efforts of the G-8 countries to ensure 
        burden sharing.

SEC. 2. MULTILATERAL DEBT CANCELLATION EFFORTS FOR COUNTRIES ELIGIBLE 
              TO BE CONSIDERED FOR ASSISTANCE UNDER THE HEAVILY 
              INDEBTED POOR COUNTRIES (HIPC) INITIATIVE OR HEAVILY 
              AFFECTED BY HIV/AIDS.

    The Secretary of the Treasury shall instruct the United States 
Executive Directors at the International Bank for Reconstruction and 
Development and the International Monetary Fund to use the voice, vote, 
and influence of the United States to call for a vote in their 
respective institutions on (and call for the publication of the outcome 
of any such vote)--
            (1) negotiating a strategy for cancelling the debts owed to 
        the institution by any country that is eligible to be 
        considered for assistance under the Heavily Indebted Poor 
        Countries (HIPC) Initiative or is heavily affected by HIV/AIDS, 
        which should ensure that the savings from debt cancellation 
are used for poverty reduction in a process that is fair and 
transparent, and that includes the participation of national 
governments, including parliamentary bodies, nongovernmental 
organizations, and civil society;
            (2) in the interim, accepting an immediate moratorium on 
        debt service payments and accrual of interest on such debt owed 
        by any such country;
            (3) encouraging each such country and civil society 
        stakeholders to ensure that--
                    (A) the national HIV/AIDS strategic plan is fully 
                funded, and that a significant proportion of the 
                savings from debt cancellation is used for the HIV/AIDS 
                response and other health priorities, as determined 
                locally; and
                    (B) HIV/AIDS and infectious disease control 
                strategies are based upon best practices, including 
                prevention, care, treatment, orphan response, and 
                accessibility to affordable drugs and social and health 
                infrastructure; and
            (4) using the reserve accounts or net income of the 
        institution to offset the costs of any such debt cancellation.

SEC. 3. OPPOSITION TO USER FEES FOR PRIMARY EDUCATION OR PRIMARY HEALTH 
              CARE.

    The Secretary of the Treasury shall instruct the United States 
Executive Directors at at the International Bank for Reconstruction and 
Development and the International Monetary Fund to oppose and vote 
against any program of these institutions that would include user fees 
or service charges for primary education or primary health care, 
including prevention and treatment efforts for HIV/AIDS, malaria, 
tuberculosis, and infant, child, and maternal well-being.

SEC. 4. ANTICORRUPTION STRATEGIES.

    The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with appropriate 
governmental agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and civil 
society, shall develop strategies to counter corruption in the 
countries described in section 2.

SEC. 5. REPORTS.

    Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, 
the Secretary of the Treasury shall submit to the Committees on 
Financial Services and on International Relations of the House of 
Representatives and the Committees on Banking, Housing, and Urban 
Affairs and on Foreign Relations of the Senate a written report on all 
progress in debt cancellation efforts undertaken pursuant to this Act 
and on the effects of the debt cancellation provided pursuant to this 
Act on funding for HIV/AIDS programs, projects, activities (including 
any vaccination approaches, health care delivery system infrastructure 
development, HIV prevention education), and the effectiveness of such 
programs, projects, and activities in reducing the worldwide spread of 
HIV/AIDS. The report should include recommendations for measures to 
ensure accountability in the use of the savings from such debt 
cancellation.

SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) G-8 countries.--The term ``G-8 countries'' means the 
        group consisting of France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, 
        the United States, Canada, Italy, and Russia established to 
        facilitate economic cooperation among the 8 major economic 
        powers.
            (2) Heavily affected by hiv/aids.--The term ``heavily 
        affected by HIV/AIDS'' means, with respect to a country, that 
        the country has an HIV/AIDS incidence of at least 3 percent or 
        the country has declared a national health emergency related to 
        HIV/AIDS.
            (3) Heavily indebted poor countries (hipc) initiative.--The 
        term ``Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative'' 
        means countries that are eligible for consideration for highly 
        concessional assistance from the International Development 
        Association, and from the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility 
        of the International Monetary Fund.
            (4) HIV/AIDS.--The term ``HIV/AIDS'' means infection with 
        the human immunodeficiency virus. Such term includes the 
        acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
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