[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 945 Introduced in House (IH)]






109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 945

  To provide assistance to combat infectious diseases in Haiti and to 
establish a comprehensive health infrastructure in Haiti, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 17, 2005

    Ms. Lee (for herself, Mr. Brown of Ohio, Mrs. Christensen, Mrs. 
 McCarthy, Mr. Hastings of Florida, Mr. Rush, Mr. Wynn, Mr. Owens, Mr. 
 Payne, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Grijalva, Ms. Norton, Mr. Rangel, Mr. Towns, 
    Mr. Wexler, Ms. Woolsey, Mr. Cummings, Ms. Carson, Ms. Moore of 
Wisconsin, Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, Mr. Jackson of Illinois, 
Mr. Conyers, Ms. Kilpatrick of Michigan, Mr. Meeks of New York, and Ms. 
   Waters) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                  Committee on International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To provide assistance to combat infectious diseases in Haiti and to 
establish a comprehensive health infrastructure in Haiti, 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. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.

    (a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``New Partnership 
for Haiti Act of 2005''.
    (b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents of this Act is as 
follows:

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
                      TITLE I--GENERAL PROVISIONS

Sec. 101. Findings.
Sec. 102. Purpose.
Sec. 103. Definitions.
Sec. 104. Requirements for determining a democratically elected 
                            government in Haiti.
Sec. 105. Development of a comprehensive strategy.
              TITLE II--UNITED STATES ASSISTANCE FOR HAITI



Sec. 201. Assistance for health sector development.
Sec. 202. Assistance for health infrastructure development.
Sec. 203. Assistance for water and sanitation infrastructure 
                            development.
Sec. 204. Professional exchange for areas in Haiti severely affected by 
                            dilapidated physical health 
                            infrastructures.

                      TITLE I--GENERAL PROVISIONS

SEC. 101. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Haiti is the most impoverished nation in the Western 
        Hemisphere.
            (2) The United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS states 
        that Haiti accounts for 90 percent of the HIV/AIDS infections 
        and case rates in the Caribbean.
            (3) HIV infections and AIDS have approached epidemic 
        proportions in Haiti. More than 300,000 infected people have 
        been identified and deaths from HIV/AIDS have left 
        approximately 200,000 children orphaned, while more than 12,000 
        children in Haiti are living with HIV/AIDS.
            (4) The infant and maternal mortality rate in Haiti 
        continues to rise and only 1 in every 10,000 Haitians has 
        access to a physician.
            (5) The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria 
        has approved the control mechanisms of the Government of Haiti, 
        which include measures to address transparency and for 
        disbursement of grants from the Global Fund.
            (6) The President has included Haiti in the list of 15 
        countries that qualify for United States assistance to combat 
        HIV/AIDS under the United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, 
        Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003.
            (7) The people of Haiti have a constitutional and 
        fundamental human right to health and government has the 
        obligation to fulfill these rights to the level of resources 
        available.
            (8) The legal minimum daily wage in Haiti is approximately 
        $.96 but many Haitians work in the informal economy or in 
        subsistence agriculture for $.40 or less a day.
            (9) 76 percent of Haiti's children under the age of five 
        are underweight or suffer from wasting or stunting.
            (10) Only 46 percent of the population has access to safe 
        water and only 28 percent of the population to sanitation 
        services.
            (11) 63 percent of Haitians are undernourished. As stated 
        by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food: 
        ``Despite the fact that global wealth and resources [are] 
        sufficient to provide food for everyone, some 100,000 people 
        [die] every day of hunger or hunger-related diseases 
        [throughout the world].''.
            (12) The infant mortality rate in Haiti is approximately 76 
        deaths for each 1,000 live female births and 81 deaths for each 
        1,000 live male births.
            (13) Life expectancy at birth in Haiti is approximately 51 
        years.
            (14) Approximately 80 percent of Haiti's population lives 
        in abject poverty.
            (15) Unemployment and underemployment is widespread in 
        Haiti as evidenced by the fact that more than two-thirds of the 
        labor force are without formal jobs.
            (16)(A) The Office of Technical Assistance within the 
        Bureau of International Affairs of the Department of the 
        Treasury has provided advisers to governments in Central and 
        Eastern Europe and the independent states of the former Soviet 
        Union to assist in the transition from command to market 
        economies.
            (B) In the typical mission, a Treasury Department 
        ``resident advisor'' provides assistance to a senior finance 
        ministry or central bank counterpart in one of several areas: 
        tax policy and administration, government debt issuance and 
        management, financial institutions policy and regulation, 
        budget policy and management, and the prevention, detection, 
        and prosecution of financial crimes. These resident advisers 
        are supported by short-term experts and technicians.
            (17) More recently, the Department of the Treasury has 
        addressed challenges in other parts of the world by assisting 
        the South African Department of Finance in restructuring its 
        budget office and process, working in the Haitian Finance 
        Ministry to improve apportionment and budget execution, and 
        helping to resolve the banking crisis in Indonesia.
            (18) More recently, Haiti's democratically elected 
        President was ousted which left Haiti with a transitional 
        government from 2004 to 2006.
            (19) Programs of assistance under this Act will work in 
        partnership with any democratically elected government of Haiti 
        which is recognized and works within the Haitian Constitution.

SEC. 102. PURPOSE.

    The purpose of this Act is to strengthen United States leadership 
and the effectiveness of the United States response to infectious 
diseases in Haiti and Haiti's struggling health sector while assisting 
with the rebuilding of physical infrastructure by--
            (1) establishing a comprehensive, integrated strategy to 
        develop Haiti's health infrastructure, combat HIV/AIDS and 
        other infectious diseases, and improve coordination among 
        relevant Federal departments and agencies and between the 
        United States and a democratically elected government in Haiti, 
        nongovernmental organizations, and other international 
        organizations;
            (2) providing increased resources for United States 
        efforts, particularly for technical assistance and training, to 
        combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria in Haiti;
            (3) encouraging the expansion of the international 
        community to reengage with a democratically elected government 
        in Haiti and expand private sector efforts and public-private 
        sector partnerships to establish a functional health sector in 
        Haiti;
            (4) assisting and securing a system of basic water, 
        sanitation, and other physical infrastructure; and
            (5) encouraging an exchange of knowledge and 
        professionalism between a democratically elected government in 
        Haiti and the United States Department of the Treasury through 
        the Department's Office of Technical Assistance within the 
        Bureau of International Affairs, including by providing 
        Department of the Treasury advisers to work to explain such 
        concepts as budgeting and the decision making process, tax 
        policy as a means of financing the annual government budget, 
        treasury bill markets to replace central bank monetization of 
        deficits, and the banking as a system of intermediation rather 
        than financial accounting.

SEC. 103. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) AIDS.--The term ``AIDS'' means the acquired immune 
        deficiency syndrome.
            (2) Appropriate congressional committees.--The term 
        ``appropriate congressional committees'' means the Committee on 
        International Relations of the House of Representatives and the 
        Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate.
            (3) Democratically elected government in haiti.--The term 
        ``democratically elected government in Haiti''--
                    (A) means a government determined by the President 
                to have met the requirements of section 104; and
                    (B) does not include the Government of Haiti that 
                came to power in February 2004 as a result of the coup 
                d'etat in the Republic of Haiti.
            (4) HIV.--The term ``HIV'' means the human immunodeficiency 
        virus, the pathogen that causes AIDS.
            (5) HIV/AIDS.--The term ``HIV/AIDS'' means, with respect to 
        an individual, an individual who is infected with HIV or living 
        with AIDS.

SEC. 104. REQUIREMENTS FOR DETERMINING A DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED 
              GOVERNMENT IN HAITI.

    For purposes of this Act, a democratically elected government in 
Haiti is a government which--
            (1) results from free and fair elections--
                    (A) conducted under the supervision of 
                internationally recognized observers; and
                    (B) in which--
                            (i) opposition parties were permitted ample 
                        time to organize and campaign for such 
                        elections; and
                            (ii) all candidates were permitted full 
                        access to the media; and
            (2) is showing respect for the basic civil liberties and 
        human rights of the citizens of Haiti.

SEC. 105. DEVELOPMENT OF A COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGY.

    Upon transmitting a determination to the appropriate congressional 
committees that a democratically elected government in Haiti is in 
power, the President shall seek to work with such democratically 
elected government in Haiti, the international financial community, 
civil society, and other international organizations to establish a 
comprehensive and integrated strategy to combat infectious diseases in 
Haiti and to establish a comprehensive health infrastructure in Haiti.

              TITLE II--UNITED STATES ASSISTANCE FOR HAITI

SEC. 201. ASSISTANCE FOR HEALTH SECTOR DEVELOPMENT.

    (a) Statement of Policy.--It is the policy of the United States--
            (1) to assist in empowering the people of Haiti, 
        particularly, women, young people and children, socially, 
        economically, and intellectually to seek health as a human 
        right and to prevent the transmission and contraction of HIV/
        AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other infectious and endemic 
        diseases; and
            (2) to ensure that affordable effective health 
        technologies, preventatives, and curatives are widely available 
        to the people of Haiti.
    (b) Assistance.--
            (1) In general.--Upon transmitting a determination to the 
        appropriate congressional committees that a democratically 
        elected government in Haiti is in power, the President, acting 
        through the Administrator of the United States Agency for 
        International Development, the Director of the Centers for 
        Disease Control and Prevention, and the heads of other 
        appropriate Federal departments and agencies, is authorized to 
        provide assistance, on such terms and conditions as the 
        President may determine, to facilitate the development of the 
        health sector of Haiti.
            (2) Activities supported.--Assistance provided under 
        paragraph (1) shall, to the maximum extent practicable, be used 
        to carry out the following activities:
                    (A) Develop and expand the health sector in Haiti 
                by expanding the current health infrastructure, 
                targeting resources toward sanitation and water 
                improvements, and developing best practices to fight 
                serious health conditions in the country, including 
                HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.
                    (B) Education, prevention, care, treatment, 
                support, capacity development, and other activities 
                relating to the prevention, treatment, and control of 
                infectious diseases.
    (c) Authorization of Appropriations.--
            (1) In general.--There are authorized to be appropriated to 
        carry out this section such sums as may be necessary for each 
        of the fiscal years 2006 and 2007.
            (2) Availability.--Amounts appropriated pursuant to the 
        authorization of appropriations under paragraph (1) are 
        authorized to remain available until expended.

SEC. 202. ASSISTANCE FOR HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT.

    (a) Assistance.--
            (1) In general.--Upon transmitting a determination to the 
        appropriate congressional committees that a democratically 
        elected government in Haiti is in power, the President, acting 
        through the Secretary of State and the United States Army Corps 
        of Engineers, is authorized to provide assistance, on such 
        terms and conditions as the President may determine, to 
        facilitate the development of the basic sanitation and 
        transportation infrastructure of Haiti.
            (2) Activities supported.--Assistance provided under 
        paragraph (1) shall, to the maximum extent practicable, be used 
        to carry out the following activities:
                    (A) Expand and further develop transportation and 
                infrastructure projects in Haiti, including paving of 
                roads and the availability of a health care vehicle or 
                establishment of an emergency transportation plan in 
                townships or villages located more than 30 to 40 miles 
                away from a health clinic.
                    (B) Commission an environmental impact study 
                focused on the cost of development and paving of 
                primary ``dirt roads'' located up to 30-40 miles away 
                from major health clinics and provide the basic 
                resources for the development and paving of such roads.
    (b) Report.--The President shall prepare and transmit to the 
appropriate congressional committees a report that contains the results 
of the environmental impact study carried out pursuant to subsection 
(a)(2)(B), including a cost analysis of carrying out the activities 
described in such subsection.
    (c) Authorization of Appropriations.--
            (1) In general.--There are authorized to be appropriated to 
        carry out this section such sums as may be necessary for each 
        of the fiscal years 2006 and 2007.
            (2) Availability.--Amounts appropriated pursuant to the 
        authorization of appropriations under paragraph (1) are 
        authorized to remain available until expended.

SEC. 203. ASSISTANCE FOR WATER AND SANITATION INFRASTRUCTURE 
              DEVELOPMENT.

    (a) Assistance.--
            (1) In general.--Upon transmitting a determination to the 
        appropriate congressional committees that a democratically 
        elected government in Haiti is in power, the President, acting 
        through the Secretary of State and the United States Army Corps 
        of Engineers, is authorized to provide assistance, on such 
        terms and conditions as the President may determine, to 
        facilitate the development of the water and sanitation 
        infrastructure of Haiti.
            (2) Activities supported.--Assistance provided under 
        paragraph (1) shall, to the maximum extent practicable, be used 
        to carry out the following activities:
                    (A) Expand and further develop water and sanitation 
                infrastructure projects in Haiti, including assistance 
                for development of sanitation and trash removal 
                services in urban and rural areas of Haiti, development 
                of sewage systems in areas with populations of at least 
                100,000 people, assistance and educational resources to 
                improve water quality and delivery, and implementation 
                of community water reserves to be maintained by public-
                private partnerships.
                    (B) Commission an environmental impact study 
                focused on the effects of the deteriorating water and 
                sanitation conditions in Haiti and provide the 
                necessary resources for the improvement of such 
                conditions.
    (b) Report.--The President shall prepare and transmit to the 
appropriate congressional committees a report that contains the results 
of the environmental impact study carried out pursuant to subsection 
(a)(2)(B), including a cost analysis of carrying out the activities 
described in such subsection and subparagraphs (C) and (D) of 
subsection (a)(2).
    (c) Authorization of Appropriations.--
            (1) In general.--There are authorized to be appropriated to 
        carry out this section such sums as may be necessary for each 
        of the fiscal years 2006 and 2007.
            (2) Availability.--Amounts appropriated pursuant to the 
        authorization of appropriations under paragraph (1) are 
        authorized to remain available until expended.

SEC. 204. PROFESSIONAL EXCHANGE FOR AREAS IN HAITI SEVERELY AFFECTED BY 
              DILAPIDATED PHYSICAL HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURES.

    (a) In General.--Upon transmitting a determination to the 
appropriate congressional committees that a democratically elected 
government in Haiti is in power, the President shall establish a 
program to demonstrate the feasibility of facilitating the service of 
United States health care professionals and engineers in Haiti and its 
localities severely affected by dilapidated physical and health 
infrastructure, including but not limited to development of health 
clinics and health care, roads and sanitation development, and 
reconstruction of public facilities such as schools, hospitals, and 
clinics.
    (b) Requirements.--Participants in the program shall provide basic 
services through training and participation, enter into partnerships 
with nongovernmental organizations and the United States Army Corps of 
Engineers, facilitate on-the-job training for residents of the area, 
and serve for a period of up to 3 years.
    (c) Eligibility Requirements.--Candidates shall be residents of the 
Unites States who are trained professional in their respective field 
who meets licensure requirements necessary to be such a professional, 
including but not limited to physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, 
pharmacists, and other types of health care professionals, engineers, 
architects, and any other individual determined to be appropriate by 
the President.
    (d) Recruitment.--The President shall ensure that information on 
the program is widely distributed, including the distribution of 
information to schools and universities where professionals attain 
certification, hospitals, clinics, nongovernmental organizations 
working in the areas of international health and development, and any 
other location the President deems fit.
    (e) Coordination.--Placement of participants in the program shall 
be coordinated with the United States Agency for International 
Development in countries in which the Agency is conducting such 
programs. Overall placement of participants in the program shall be 
made by the President or his designee.
    (f) Incentives.--The President may offer such incentives as the 
President determines to be necessary to encourage individuals to 
participate in the program, such as partial payment of principal, 
interest, and related expenses on government and commercials loans for 
educational expenses relating to professional training in their 
respective fields, and where possible, deferment of repayments on such 
loans, the provision of retirement benefits that would otherwise 
jeopardize participation in the program, and other incentives.
    (g) Report.--Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment 
of the Act, the President shall transmit to the appropriate 
congressional committees a report on steps taken to establish the 
program, including--
            (1) the process of recruitment, including the venues for 
        recruitment, the number of candidates recruited, the incentives 
        offered, if any, and the cost of those incentives;
            (2) the process, including the criteria used, for the 
        selection of participants;
            (3) the number of participants placed, the locality in 
        which they were placed, and why those professionals were 
        selected for that particular region of Haiti; and
            (4) the potential for expansion of the program.
    (h) Authorization of Appropriations.--
            (1) In general.--There are authorized to be appropriated to 
        carry out this section such sums as may be necessary for each 
        of the fiscal years 2006 and 2007.
            (2) Availability.--Amounts appropriated pursuant to the 
        authorization of appropriations under paragraph (1) are 
        authorized to remain available until expended.
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