[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 59 (Monday, May 15, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H3032]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      SUPPORT OF THE WORLD BANK AIDS MARSHALL PLAN TRUST FUND ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, earlier today we voted on H.R. 
3519, the World Bank AIDS Marshall Plan Trust Fund Act. I am pleased to 
have supported this important legislation.
  I want to commend its authors, the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Leach) 
and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) for their vision and 
commitment to ending the horrors of HIV/AIDS globally.
  I also want to take this moment to thank former representative Ron 
Dellums, Sandra Thurman, Mel Foote, Jesse Jackson, Senior, and others 
who have provided leadership efforts to try to combat the problem of 
AIDS in Africa.
  The legislation that we have passed today will provide significant 
funding over 5 years for HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention, and research 
in developing nations. The bill establishes a trust fund at the World 
Bank that has the potential to leverage $1 billion a year from donor 
nations and the private sector.
  We currently face a crisis as it relates to HIV/AIDS globally. 
Perhaps nowhere is this crisis more evident than on the continent of 
Africa. More than 16 million people have died from AIDS since the 
1980s, 60 percent of them in Sub-Saharan Africa. Not since the Bubonic 
plague ravaged Europe in the Middle Ages has there been a more 
devastating disease.
  Currently, 23 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa are affected with 
either HIV or with AIDS, with new infections coming at the rate of 
5,000 a day, according to the World Health Organization. In South 
Africa alone, it is estimated that there are more than 1,500 new HIV 
infections each day.
  Unfortunately, due to our accelerated travel and trade, the pandemic 
is spreading to Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and India rapidly.
  I applaud President Clinton for his courage and vision to declare 
HIV/AIDS as a national security threat. He realizes that the global 
spread of HIV/AIDS has the potential to destabilize governments and 
disrupt trade in free market democracies abroad.
  The Congressional Black Caucus 2 years ago urged Secretary Donna 
Shalala to declare a state of emergency relative to HIV/AIDS in 
communities of color in America because we realized that this disease 
destroys our most precious resource, and that is, our people.
  Mr. Speaker, as the most developed nation in the world, we have an 
ongoing obligation and responsibility to share our technology and 
medical expertise with developing nations. Former President Franklin 
Roosevelt once said that the test of our progress is not whether we add 
more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide 
enough for those who have too little.
  Today this Congress took a step to lift the lots of those who have 
too little. The World Bank AIDS Marshall Trust Fund Plan will help to 
ensure that the Federal government, our Federal government, commits to 
addressing this issue over the next several years.
  Again, Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have joined with other Members of 
this House who took a bold and gigantic step in not only dealing with 
an issue at the domestic level, but going abroad, understanding that we 
are a world community. I salute Congress for the action that it took 
this day.

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