[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 48 (Tuesday, March 25, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H2280-H2281]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




UNITED STATES LEADERSHIP AGAINST HIV/AIDS, MALARIA AND TUBERCULOSIS ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, my colleagues on the Committee on 
International Relations recently introduced H.R. 1298, the United 
States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis Act. The 
bill is a 5-year, $15 billion bill providing $3 billion in relief in 
each of these 5 years. It provides no minimum for U.S. contributions to 
the Global Fund and authorizes a maximum of $1 billion for fiscal

[[Page H2281]]

year 2004 and such sums as necessary in the ensuing 4 years.

                              {time}  1245

  The bill provides the limitation that ``no U.S. contribution to the 
Global Fund may cause a total amount of U.S. Government contributions 
to exceed 33 percent of the total amount of funds contributed to the 
Global Fund from all other sources.''
  This encourages other countries to step up to the plate also and 
other philanthropists around the world.
  This bill is a start. It is the fist step in a long and difficult 
journey we must take in the effort to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and 
malaria.
  Sixty-five million people have been infected with HIV since the 
epidemic began, 65 million people; and 25 million of them have died. 
Fourteen million children have been orphaned. The numbers are not only 
staggering; they are devastating, and they are growing.
  I am glad to see this bill authorizes up to $1 billion next year for 
the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria; but we need 
to offer more.
  United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has asked each of the 25 
richest democracies in the world to contribute seven-tenths of 1 
percent of their gross domestic product towards world hunger, world 
poverty, and in combating infectious disease, seven-tenths of 1 
percent. Only four countries have committed that figure and have 
contributed that figure. The United States contributes less than one-
tenth of 1 percent of its gross domestic product, ranking as dead last 
among the 25 wealthy industrial democracies in the world in terms of 
what we do in foreign aid to combat poverty and infectious disease.
  In the upcoming years, we will spend estimates upward of $100 billion 
to rebuild Iraq. Yet we have been unwilling to spend more than one-
fifth of 1 percent of that amount, $200 million so far, to save the 
lives of millions of people around the world.
  A physician with the World Health Organization remarked recently, 
``There are certain problems the U.S. simply cannot solve on its own, 
much as it would like to believe otherwise.''
  Bilateral aid programs are important tools and should not be 
discounted, but they are not enough. Too often they are BandAids placed 
on a hemorrhaging patient. To successfully turn the tied against HIV/
AIDS, against tuberculosis, against malaria, diseases that kill 6 
million people around the world each year, will take the largest 
multilateral coalition imaginable. Simply put, it will take the entire 
world to save the world. That level of commitment is not fully on our 
radar screen, but it needs to be. The Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB, 
and malaria represents the best tool we have to provide relief on a 
scale that will really matter.
  I started this speech, Mr. Speaker, with numbers, and I will leave my 
colleagues with some numbers. Thirteen thousand new AIDS infections 
every day, 2,000 of them in children under age 15; 8,500 AIDS deaths a 
day; 20 million AIDS orphans are projected in Africa by 2010. Mr. 
Speaker, 1,100 people in India every day die from tuberculosis.
  Take a moment to think about what these numbers really mean. Every 
day we fail to act, every day we fail to take the necessary action, 
these numbers increase. Every dollar we fail to provide today will cost 
us 100 times that tomorrow. U.S. failure to properly commit to the 
Global Fund is not just unfortunate, it is shameful. In 20 years, we 
will tell our children that we did all we could to combat the tide of 
these epidemics, or we will be forced to tell them that we failed the 
world.

                          ____________________