[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 37 (Friday, March 7, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E409-E410]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        GLOBAL HIV/AIDS PANDEMIC

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 5, 2003

  Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to revise and extend my 
remarks to include a letter I referenced during my special order 
statement yesterday on the issue of the President's Emergency Plan for 
AIDS Relief, announced during his State of the Union address

[[Page E410]]

this past January. This is the letter that I and other members of the 
CBC, AIDS activist groups and the faith-based community wrote to 
President Bush on December 18, 2002 asking him to announce a 
presidential initiative to address this vexing problem.


                                Congress of the United States,

                                Washington, DC, December 18, 2002.
     President George W. Bush,
     1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear President Bush: As members of the Congressional Black 
     Caucus, we are writing to draw your attention to the growing 
     spread of HIV/AIDS throughout the developing world. It would 
     be impossible to overstate the devastation caused to date by 
     the global AIDS pandemic, or the urgency of the need for a 
     greater response from the United States and the global 
     community. With 42 million people currently living with HIV/
     AIDS--29.4 million of them in Sub-Saharan Africa--14 million 
     children already orphaned by the disease, and 70 million more 
     people expected to die by 2020, we must do more now. We must 
     respond on an appropriate scale to address the greatest 
     plague in recorded history.
       The United States, as the world's wealthiest nation, must 
     take greater action by contributing its fair share, and in 
     doing so we can help galvanize the global response that we so 
     desperately need. As you prepare to travel to Africa in 
     January, and as you prepare your budget for fiscal year 2004, 
     you have a remarkable opportunity to demonstrate United 
     States leadership against AIDS at a moment when the world 
     will be watching. We urge you to launch a major new U.S. 
     initiative to fight AIDS, as well as tuberculosis and 
     malaria. TB is the leading killer of people with HIV, 
     claiming 2 million lives each year despite the existence of 
     an effective and inexpensive cure, while malaria kills nearly 
     one million people each year, most of them young children in 
     Africa.
       An expanded U.S. Initiative to fight AIDS must:
       Provide at least $2.5 billion for implementation of global 
     AIDS programs in 2004, as well as additional funds to combat 
     TB and malaria. At least 50 percent of this should go to the 
     Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.
       Prioritize treatment, as well as prevention and care, for 
     those affected--including an expanded mother-to-child 
     transmission initiative that would detect and treat entire 
     families, and including funding and personnel as needed to 
     implement the WHO call to treat three million people with HIV 
     by 2005.
       Promote developing countries access to sustainable supplies 
     of affordable medicines for AIDS and other diseases such as 
     opportunistic infections in accordance with the Doha 
     Ministerial Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public 
     Health and oppose any attempts to limit the scope of the 
     Declaration.
       Expand programs for children orphaned by AIDS.
       Seek debt cancellation for impoverished countries, so they 
     can invest in poverty reduction and AIDS programs.
       Most importantly, a U.S. initiative should consist of new 
     monies and policies that complement existing U.S.-supported 
     programs and are additional to the Millennium Challenge 
     Account (MCA). The MCA, however, also must help meet the 
     Millennium Development Goal of halting and reversing the 
     spread of these diseases.
       We cannot win the war against AIDS without greater 
     financial resources and a clear plan of action for the United 
     States. Programs around the world are ready to scale up 
     prevention, treatment, and care to save lies now, and to 
     develop the systems needed to save tens of millions more in 
     the future. Each day we delay in mounting a comprehensive--
     and compassionate--response to the global AIDS and TB 
     pandemics, the cost in human, social, and economic terms 
     grows. You will have our strong support and the support of 
     the American people for a bold new initiative to save 
     families and communities affected by the AIDS crisis, to 
     extend the parent-child relationship, and to secure the 
     future of young people.
           Sincerely,
         Barbara Lee, Donna Christian-Christensen, Edolphus Towns, 
           Charles B. Rangel, Julia Carson, Juanita Millender-
           McDonald.
         Maxine Waters, Danny K. Davis, Robert Scott, Elijah E. 
           Cummings, William ``Lacy'' Clay, Stephanie Tubbs Jones.
         Eddie Bernice Johnson, Bobby L. Rush, Carolyn C. 
           Kilpatrick, Diane E. Watson, Gregory W. Meeks, Major R. 
           Owens.
         Harold Ford, Jr., John Conyers, Jr., Alcee L. Hastings, 
           Sheila Jackson-Lee, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Donald M. 
           Payne, Sanford D. Bishop, Jr., Bennie G. Thompson, 
           Melvin L. Watt, Corrine Brown, Chaka Fattah, Jesse 
           Jackson, Jr., James Clyburn, Albert R. Wynn.

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