[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 159 (Wednesday, November 5, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H10364-H10367]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   APPOINTMENT OF CONFEREES ON H.R. 2800, FOREIGN OPERATIONS, EXPORT 
        FINANCING, AND RELATED PROGRAMS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2004

  Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the 
Speaker's table the bill (H.R. 2800) making appropriations for foreign 
operations, export financing, and related programs for the fiscal year 
ending September 30, 2004, and for other purposes, with a Senate 
amendment thereto, disagree to the Senate amendment, and agree to the 
conference asked by the Senate.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Arizona?
  There was no objection.


                Motion To Instruct Offered by Mrs. Lowey

  Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, I offer a motion to instruct conferees.
  The Clerk read as follows:

       Mrs. Lowey moves that the managers on the part of the House 
     at the conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses 
     on the bill, H.R. 2800, making appropriations for foreign 
     operations, export financing, and related programs for the 
     fiscal year 2004 be instructed to insist on the provisions of 
     the Senate bill providing a total of $1,726,000,000 to combat 
     HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 7 of rule XXII the 
gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Lowey) and the gentleman from Arizona 
(Mr. Kolbe) each will control 30 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Lowey).
  Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, this motion to instruct the conferees on the fiscal year 
2004 foreign operations bill will ensure that the House is clearly on 
record to provide the highest possible funding level for HIV/AIDS, 
tuberculosis, and malaria in 2004.
  With the $700 million provided in the Labor HHS bill for these 
purposes, acceptance of these funding levels would bring the total 
amount provided for HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria in 2004 to $2.4 billion.
  This motion urges the House conferees to approve the higher levels in 
the Senate-passed bill. While I had

[[Page H10365]]

hoped to reach the level of $3 billion, as the President has promised, 
acceptance of this motion gets us most of the way there. A Republican-
sponsored amendment to add $300 million in HIV/AIDS funding passed 
overwhelmingly in the other body. In addition, the Senate bill 
increases the amounts for TB and malaria by $30 million above House 
levels. This motion simply solidifies the funding levels implied by the 
HIV amendment and the underlying bill.
  We should not forget that this House voted to authorize $3 billion to 
fulfill the first year of the President's 5-year/$15 billion global 
AIDS initiative. The President left the distinct impression during his 
visit to Africa that the full $3 billion would be provided in 2004, 
despite the fact that the President only requested $2 billion in 
funding.
  While our attention, and much of the media's, has appropriately 
focused on Iraq, we must not lose sight of the fact that HIV/AIDS is 
not only a humanitarian crisis but it is a grave threat to global 
stability. The African continent is being destroyed by this pandemic. 
Of the 42 million people infected with HIV, almost three-quarters live 
in Africa. Life expectancies in Africa are falling rapidly. In some 
countries, people are not expected to live past their 40s. By the year 
2010, there will be 40 million AIDS orphans.
  There are still many countries in Africa where condom distribution, 
access to HIV testing, treatment, and education programs are simply not 
available. More resources are necessary. And our capacity to plan and 
deliver programs can, and must, be expanded.
  The global AIDS bill, recently passed by Congress, requires that our 
HIV programs begin a transition from awareness and comprehensive 
prevention to treatment and abstinence promotion programs. This will be 
an expensive undertaking, and it should not replace current efforts 
which emphasize a balanced approach to prevention and awareness. New 
efforts require new resources.
  We have been heartened by recent breakthroughs in the availability of 
drugs to treat HIV. Countries such as Thailand, India, and China are 
moving aggressively to produce and distribute drugs to HIV-infected 
populations at affordable prices. However, those same drugs remain 
unavailable in most African countries. Similarly, there are many 
promising new forms of malaria treatment now being researched. New 
resources will speed up their availability and save lives.
  The additional funds can be used next year to speed expansion of 
mother-to-child transmission programs, accelerate the creation of 
viable treatment programs, establish drug purchase and distribution 
programs, expand the President's initiative beyond the 14 countries 
currently identified, and expand prevention programs.
  With respect to the Global Fund to fight HIV, the passage of this 
motion will help ensure the highest possible funding level. While the 
House bill has $400 million for the fund, the Senate bill has only $250 
million. More for HIV means more for the fund.
  This additional funding can be used wisely next year. It will make a 
real difference and save lives and it will demonstrate to the world 
that when the United States makes a promise, we keep it.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge support of the motion to instruct.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I think the motion of my friend and colleague, the 
gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Lowey), deserves a few comments from me 
here this morning. I also would like to see more resources applied to 
the HIV/AIDS pandemic, as well as the other diseases such as malaria 
and tuberculosis that are included in our infectious diseases account 
and in the Global Fund. I think all of us would like to see that 
happen.
  I certainly voted for the $3 billion authorization that passed this 
House earlier. I also spoke during our debate on our bill and said that 
I believe the amount that we had in there was a reasonable amount of 
money, that could be expended during the course of the coming fiscal 
year. I still believe that to be the case. But if we can find ways to 
put this money into existing programs or other programs and make sure 
that it works given the constraints that we have, and I think we need 
to acknowledge the constraints that we have, for example, on the Global 
Fund of contributing no more than one-third of the total dollars that 
are made available to that fund, if we can do that, given the 
constraints that we have, then I am in favor of it. For that reason, I 
do not oppose this motion to instruct the conferees.
  But whether or not the conference provides $1.426 billion, as passed 
by the House, or $1.726 billion as passed by the Senate, in other words 
a $300 million difference there, if it is something in between, depends 
in my view, on three factors:
  The first is the allocation that the foreign operations conference 
will have under the Congressional Budget Resolution. The second, of 
course, will be the competing priorities that we have when we go to 
conference. There is going to be a priority of some for more money for 
maternal health. There is going to be a priority for more money for 
education. Some will argue for the creation of jobs in the United 
States through export promotion.
  The third factor that I think will be critical in determining exactly 
how much we finally are able to allocate to fighting this HIV/AIDS 
pandemic is the funding that not only the Foreign Operations 
appropriation conference gets, but the Labor HHS appropriations 
conference. Because they also have money in there that goes to the 
Global Fund and to fight this disease. Each of them contain differing 
House and Senate levels for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and 
malaria and for other bilateral programs.
  So this is not as though we are operating entirely within the 
confines of the Foreign Operations bill, but rather we also have to 
know what is going to be done by our sister subcommittee that handles 
Labor and Health and Human Services.
  Given those three factors, Mr. Speaker, I am hopeful, however, that 
we will be able to add to the amount of dollars that we have now 
allocated for HIV/AIDS. And I look forward to working with my 
colleague, the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Lowey) and other members 
of the conference committee both from the House and Senate to resolve 
this issue in a way that will give us the maximum funds available to 
fight this pandemic, which is not only a moral issue for most of us 
here in the Congress, but I think also a matter of national security 
for the United States.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to say that I know of the chairman's real 
commitment to this issue and know that he understands the pain and 
suffering that is resulting from the lack of finances in providing the 
education, the prevention education, the drugs that are so necessary. 
And now that the cost of these drugs are so very reasonable, when you 
think about the choices we have either to increase the dollars and save 
lives or not increase the dollars and continue the terrible tragedy, 
and I know of the chairman's commitment to this issue, I would expect 
that there will be a commitment on the part of the chairman to work 
with the leadership in the House to find the additional funds, as we 
know they did in the Senate, without taking the funds away from other 
critical programs. I am pleased that the Senate has been able to locate 
these additional funds.
  I look forward to working with the gentleman and finding these funds 
for this very vital cause.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. 
Davis).
  Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman 
from New York (Mrs. Lowey) for yielding me this time. I also want to 
commend the gentleman from Arizona (Chairman Kolbe) and the ranking 
member for the outstanding work that they have both done in shaping 
this legislation.
  I rise in support of the Lowey motion to instruct conferees on the 
Foreign Ops appropriation bill to reflect the Senate version of 
assistance for the U.S. Agency for International Development, for child 
survival and disease programs for HIV/AIDS, polio, malaria, 
tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases, including family planning 
and reproductive health programs.

[[Page H10366]]

  I commend the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Lowey) for this motion 
because it reflects her keen insight and understanding and sensitivity 
to the health and medical needs of underdeveloped nations, especially 
in Africa.
  Mr. Speaker, this motion is not a budget breaker. It is not a program 
alterer. It does not change any program, nor does it create any serious 
imbalances. It simply asks that the conferees support the other body's 
mark which is $1,726,000,000. It is not a lot of additional money 
between the two. But when we think of what a little bit of money can do 
in Africa, what it can do for individuals who are simply waiting to 
die, who have no hope, who have lost it all, given up, who have said 
that the only thing that they can do is wait and hope that something 
happens, well, this gives hope to those millions, this gives hope to 
those thousands, it is a very rational motion. I am pleased to support 
it.
  Mr. Speaker, again, I commend both the gentleman from Arizona 
(Chairman Kolbe) and the gentlewoman from New York (Ranking Member 
Lowey) for the outstanding work that they have done.
  Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
  Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) who has been a real leader on 
this issue and has certainly traveled to Africa over and over again to 
see the pain and suffering.
  Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, let me just take a moment to thank the 
gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Lowey) for her tireless efforts on the 
Foreign Operations Appropriations subcommittee to secure more funding 
for our global AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria programs. She has been 
consistent and has really helped put the appropriations funding process 
in perspective. So I just want to commend and thank the gentlewoman 
from New York (Mrs. Lowey) for her leadership.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join all of our colleagues by supporting 
this motion to instruct conferees to accept the Senate's level of 
funding for our global AIDS, TB, and malaria programs in the fiscal 
year 2004 Foreign Operations Appropriations bill.

                              {time}  1145

  Mr. Speaker, AIDS, TB and malaria have quite simply ravaged Africa 
and the developing world. Every year over 6 million people worldwide 
die needlessly, sometimes of all three of these diseases. Six million 
people. Can you imagine. Just think for a minute. Six million people. 
Six million. That is roughly equivalent to losing the entire State of 
Indiana, Massachusetts, or Washington every single year.
  Now, the vast majority of these deaths could be prevented for just 
over $300 a year, a price that is really continuing to drop. HIV/AIDS 
patients who are really on the brink of death can be revived with 
lifesaving antiretroviral therapies. For just $10 an entire course of 
DOTS treatment, TB-infected patients, who are often co-infected with 
AIDS, can be cured. For just 2 to $3 we can provide individuals with an 
insecticide-treated bed net to kill mosquitos and reduce malaria 
infections.
  That is not a lot of money to save so many millions of lives, Mr. 
Speaker. These are not complicated interventions. Success stories like 
the clinic run by Dr. Paul Farmer in Haiti have proven that members of 
the community can be trained in a single week to monitor and provide 
effective drug treatments with a minimal level of supervision while 
ensuring maximum adherence of patients to an often-strict drug regime.
  Programs like these must be strengthened and accelerated. With the 
help of the Global Fund to fight TB, AIDS, and malaria and the World 
Health Organization's new three by five AIDS initiatives, the capacity 
to scale up such programs will be greatly improved. Contrary to what 
many say and believe, the capacity is there to provide the care and 
treatment and prevention. These NGOs and these faith-based 
organizations, they only need the resources to do that. So that is 
where we must come in.
  By agreeing to this motion to instruct the conferees, we can expand 
upon the initiatives of the Global Fund and WHO while also 
strengthening our own bilateral AIDS program.
  This is very necessary, this motion. Last week the other body added 
the $289 million for the Global AIDS Fund via the defense budget 
authority, I believe, the budget authority offsets to their version of 
the foreign ops appropriations bill.
  I want to be clear, though. This motion should not infringe on the 
$400 million that the House has already endorsed for the Global Fund 
this year. While I urge my colleagues to accept this motion, I must 
again voice my discontent that we are still not at the $3 billion which 
we authorized.
  Secretary of State Colin Powell, I want to remind us all that he has 
said time and time again that the global AIDS pandemic is far more 
deadly and insidious than any form of terrorism. So by failing to treat 
it as such, we devalue the lives of those who are already suffering and 
dying. And by delaying the full funding of this initiative now, we only 
make the task more difficult later on.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. 
Lowey) for her leadership and for making sure that this body moves 
forward in addressing this pandemic in the way that we should.
  Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from 
Michigan (Ms. Kilpatrick), a distinguished member of the Subcommittee 
on Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs of the 
Committee on Appropriations, and a strong leader on this very issue.
  Ms. KILPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. 
Kolbe) for his leadership. I enjoy working with him and the things we 
do together.
  To my ranking member, the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Lowey), who 
continues to be a bright spot as we help and serve countries all over 
this world, I thank her for her leadership, generally and particularly 
on the HIV/AIDS issue.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise to support the motion to instruct and ask that 
this body also support the motion to instruct. The pandemic that we see 
all over the world, HIV and AIDS, is serious trouble. That is what a 
pandemic is.
  It started in the continent of Africa, moving to Asia, to India, to 
the former Soviet Union and other places of the world. This is truly a 
pandemic that can be contained, not cured, but can be contained with 
the proper resources.
  As has been mentioned before, HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria are illnesses 
and diseases that, if contained properly with education of those who 
are infected and in those regions of the world, we can cease the 
pandemic and begin to address the problems that we now face.
  The motion to instruct provides the resources that our country can 
give to those countries who find themselves in assault. We must do no 
less than to support the motion to instruct.
  We know how to contain this. We know where it is in pandemic 
proportions. When the resources are available in our world community, 
in our world global AIDS effort, we will find more children more 
healthy in their communities, in their families, in their countries. 
The troops that we send out across this world in these various places 
where the pandemic is, we then have resources to address that so that 
they do not then encounter these very same illnesses.
  The nongovernmental organizations, the NGOs that practice and 
actually teach and educate, and in some instances actually treat and 
provide the services, are there, are up and ready and can dispense the 
money that we have available.
  The faith-based network that is around this world, they give 
resources, training, education, as well as treatment. So I support the 
gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Lowey) in her effort. It is important 
that we go along with the Senate. And this motion to instruct is a 
small step towards the $3 billion and the $15 billion commitment that 
this President made for a 3-year commitment.
  I hope that we will support the motion to instruct. It is the right 
way, and again, less than the President has advised he would do but 
better than what we have right now. I urge Members to support the 
motion to instruct.

[[Page H10367]]

  Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I reserve 
the balance of my time to close.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Bass). The gentlewoman from New York 
(Mrs. Lowey) has the right to close.
  Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, let me say that I appreciate the comments we have heard 
here today. The expression of concern about the HIV/AIDS pandemic is 
one that I share and I think all Members of the House share.
  I would just note that we are concerned not only about this HIV/AIDS 
pandemic which is already ravaging the continent of Africa, but we are 
very concerned about the growing scourge in South Asia, in India, in 
Central Asia, and in China and in Russia. These are countries where the 
epidemic is just beginning to take off.
  We have an opportunity to do something there about preventing it from 
becoming that much worse. So I would hope that as we go through with 
the efforts to fight this disease that we focus not just on where it is 
already taking such a heavy toll but in preventing it from taking a 
very heavy toll in other places.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to again express my appreciation for the 
support of the chairman for the dollars that were appropriated in the 
Senate side. However, I have heard rumors which I strongly oppose that 
there are those who are talking about an across-the-board cut. As we 
know, there are many possibilities for adjustments in the 302(b); and I 
would hope that we can work together with the leadership in both Houses 
in making the adjustment of the 302(b) and add the additional dollars 
that have been included in the Senate bill.
  We know that given the incredible progress that is made, we know that 
when we can save lives for $300 a year that we have a moral obligation 
to do as much as we can within the confines of what is possible; and I 
look forward to working closely with the gentleman in finding these 
additional dollars, adjusting the 302(b), and appropriating in 
conference the dollar amount that has already been appropriate in the 
Senate. I thank the chairman for his acceptance of this motion to 
instruct.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the motion offered by 
Mrs. Lowey to accept the Senate's level of funding for the U.S. 
contribution in fiscal year 2004 to global programs to combat the 
spread of HIV/AIDS.
  Mr. Speaker, this should not be a difficult motion for Members on 
either side of the aisle to support.
  It simply calls for the adoption of a funding level for HIV/AIDS 
programs that was supported in the Senate last week by a vote of 89-1.
  Furthermore, it does not even reach the authorized level of funding 
that was signed into law by the President and supported by 375 Members 
of this House in May.
  In fact, the President during his State of the Union Address 
committed $15 billion in foreign assistance spending over 5 years to 
stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. Congress has since authorized this level 
through the enactment of H.R. 1298.
  Regrettably, the President's budget did not call for the full $3 
billion authorized for FY 2004, and the amount provided in the House 
version of the fiscal year 2004 Foreign Operations bill falls woefully 
short of that $3 billion which is necessary to begin making good on our 
commitment.
  Mr. Speaker, the problem of HIV/AIDS is especially acute on the 
Continent of Africa, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, where 29.4 
million people are living with HIV and AIDS.
  Put another way, while the African Continent accounts for only about 
10 percent of the world's population, more than 70 percent of the 
worldwide total of infected people reside there; and there are 11,000 
new infections in Africa every day.
  Earlier this year I had the opportunity to travel to South Africa and 
saw first hand the extent of the pandemic, the challenges facing 
African countries as they attempt to deal with this scourge, and the 
dire need for economic assistance to implement prevention programs and 
to provide treatment for those already infected.
  We are at a crucial stage in the global war against HIV/AIDS, with 
the number of worldwide deaths expected to double from last year's 
estimate of just over 5 million to nearly 12 million next year.
  To those who would argue that we cannot afford the additional funding 
provided in the Senate bill, I say that even this level is still not 
enough.
  Mr. Speaker, we have the opportunity to help stop the spread of this 
HIV/AIDS, to provide comfort and relief to those already suffering its 
effects, and to give hope to millions around the world who live in 
despair because of this horrible disease.
  Our compassion and morality command that we seize that opportunity 
and live up to the commitment we have made.
  Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the previous question is 
ordered on the motion to instruct.
  There was no objection.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion to instruct 
offered by the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Lowey).
  The motion to instruct was agreed to.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the Chair appoints the 
following conferees: Messrs. Kolbe, Knollenberg, Lewis of California, 
Wicker, Bonilla, Vitter, Kirk, Crenshaw, Young of Florida, Mrs. Lowey, 
Mr. Jackson of Illinois, Ms. Kilpatrick, Mr. Rothman, Ms. Kaptur and 
Mr. Obey.
  There was no objection.

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