[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
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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.
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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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