[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 24 (Thursday, February 8, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1758-S1759]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             APPROPRIATIONS

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, one thing that should be noted, and has 
been noted on this floor today, is that the former chairman of the 
Senate Appropriations Committee and its members got all the 
appropriations bills passed out of Committee early on last year. Had 
they been brought up by the then-leadership in the House and the Senate 
we would not even be talking about a CR because, of course, they would 
have been passed and signed into law.
  But 2 weeks ago, the Senate and House Appropriations Committees 
finished drafting H.J. Res. 20, the joint spending resolution. The 
House passed the joint resolution on January 31 by a bipartisan vote of 
286 to 140. The current continuing resolution left to us by the last 
Congress expires on February 15. So we have to act.
  Total funding in the joint resolution is within the ceiling imposed 
by President Bush and the Republican Congress last year for fiscal year 
2007. There are, however, some adjustments from the fiscal year 2006 
funding levels in the continuing resolution that the Republican 
Congress agreed to.
  During the past month, we worked together on a bipartisan basis to 
make these adjustments so there would not be severe hardships to the 
most vulnerable people or layoffs of Federal employees.
  As chairman of the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee I am 
gratified by the additional funding that was included to meet urgent 
humanitarian needs that do not reflect any partisan interest. These are 
moral needs.
  I thank Chairman Byrd and Ranking Member Cochran for their help and 
also the ranking member of the subcommittee, Senator Gregg of New 
Hampshire, and also his able staff for their support and cooperation 
during this process, and Tim Rieser and Kate Eltrich of my staff for 
what they have done.
  The adjustments include additional funding to combat HIV and AIDS. 
Under the continuing resolution we enacted last year funding within 
State and Foreign Operations to combat HIV and AIDS totaled $2.57 
billion, including $445 million for the Global Fund that fights also 
tuberculosis and malaria.
  Under H.J. Res. 20, those amounts will go to $3.84 billion and $625 
million, respectively, again, with bipartisan support. I thank Senators 
Durbin and Brownback and the others who supported me in this effort.
  Currently, only 20 percent of the people needing AIDS drugs in poor 
countries get them, and only 10 percent of the people at risk of 
infection are receiving the services to help them protect themselves.
  If we had continued funding at last year's level, we would not have 
been able to provide lifesaving antiretroviral drugs to an estimated 
350,000 HIV-infected people.
  According to the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator, 110,000 to 
175,000 people would die of HIV-related causes if the fiscal year 2006 
funding levels had not been increased in the joint resolution. Funding 
to combat malaria would have been frozen at the fiscal year 2006 level 
under the continuing resolution passed last year.
  Of course, malaria is something we do not have to worry about in this 
country. It is both preventable and treatable. Yet it kills more than a 
million people each year. Most of those who die are African children. 
An expansion of programs to combat malaria would have been stalled 
under the continuing resolution and the eight additional countries 
targeted for the next round of malaria prevention and treatment would 
have been placed on hold.
  The additional funding will enable us to meet our commitment to cut 
malaria-related deaths by 50 percent in 15 of the hardest hit countries 
in Africa. These funds will go to support the purchase of lifesaving 
drugs, the distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets, and the 
treatment of pregnant women at risk for malaria.

[[Page S1759]]

  What we do here will help people none of us here will ever meet. Yet 
think of nearly a million children in Africa who would die if we do not 
act. So it becomes a moral issue. America, again, helping people we 
will never know or see, but we do it because it is the moral thing to 
do and we have the wealth and technology to do it.

  Under H.J. Res. 20, funding for international peacekeeping operations 
will receive an additional $113 million above the amount in the 
continuing resolution enacted last year. This will ensure that our 
assessed dues to the U.N. are paid and we do not fall further behind in 
our support for troops in 13 countries, including Lebanon, Sudan, 
Haiti, and the Congo where, again, it is in our best interests to 
support these peacekeeping missions.
  We provide $50 million to support the African Union troops in Darfur 
and southern Sudan. These funds had been omitted last year, but they 
are needed for the 7,000 troops at 34 camps throughout Sudan. When we 
read about the genocide in Sudan, about the children who have been 
murdered, women who have been raped, people who have been killed as 
they flee the ashes of their homes, how can we, as Americans say we 
can't do something to stop it?
  There is $20 million here to support Iraqi refugees. That is an 
amount which, unfortunately, will only begin to address the catastrophe 
that is unfolding. In fact, additional aid, as we know, will be needed 
for Iraqi refugees in the fiscal year 2007 supplemental. The number of 
refugees is going up every day. The ability to care for them is 
insufficient.
  So the clock is ticking. The urgency with which the Senate must act 
to pass the joint funding resolution should be measured not in time but 
in human lives. As Members of the Senate and the American people can 
readily see, this legislation involves issues of life and death.
  The additional funds were designated by the chairmen and ranking 
members of the Senate and House Appropriations Committees to support 
the priorities of both Democratic and Republican Senators, without 
exceeding the total funding ceiling set by the President.
  I have said so many times on the floor of the Senate, on questions of 
diseases that could be prevented, if Members of the Senate have young 
children or grandchildren or their friends do, we know that at certain 
times as they are growing up they go to the pediatrician, they get 
vaccinated against measles and other diseases. And they are protected. 
We take it as a matter of course. We get the bill and we pay it, but 
that bill is close to the amount many people in Africa would earn in a 
year. They also know that their children may not get those 
vaccinations. They will not go to the pediatrician when they are 5 
years old because many of them die before they are 5 years old.
  Oftentimes the mothers are not there to care for them either because 
of hundreds of thousands of women die needlessly in childbirth.
  We can make a dramatic change. I agree with the President, I agree 
with Members on both sides of the aisle, and I commend those who have 
supported this. But also to those people around the world who have 
urged America, the most powerful Nation on Earth, to stand up and do 
these humanitarian things, this is a small down payment on what the 
wealthiest, most powerful Nation on Earth can do. It is something that 
speaks to the moral character of America and makes us a better nation 
and makes the lives of people we will never see better.
  I am reminded of my dear friend Bono, who is known all over the world 
for doing this, and who I commended for helping people throughout the 
world who would never hear his music, who do not recognize him, who 
will never buy a ticket to one of his concerts but whose lives are 
measurably better because of him. We have it in our power to do the 
same thing.
  Madam President, while I have been here the occupant of the Chair 
changed from the time I started my comments to now. I hope it will show 
on the Record and will be corrected to say ``Madam President.'' One of 
the problems when you have been here as long as I have is you get used 
to saying ``Mr. President.'' And, of course, the Chair is now occupied 
by the Senator from Minnesota, one of the welcome new faces in the 
Senate, somebody who has improved the Senate just by being here.
  I was reminded of some who came here at a time when this was an all-
male Senate, and it has improved substantially by the fact that it is 
no longer nor ever will be, I believe, in our lifetimes, an all-male 
body.
  I apologize to the Presiding Officer who came to the Chair following 
the distinguished Senator from Nebraska. Of course, I refer to her with 
pride, I might say, and with gratitude, as Madam President.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Klobuchar). Under the previous order, the 
Senator from Alabama has 45 minutes.

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