[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 182 (Wednesday, November 30, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H7938-H7939]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          POVERTY AND HIV/AIDS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Lee) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. LEE of California. Mr. Speaker, as a founding co-chair of both 
the Congressional Out of Poverty Caucus and the Congressional HIV/AIDS 
Caucus, I rise today to draw attention once again to the ongoing crisis 
of poverty in America. And, today, I also want to draw particular 
attention to the impact of poverty on our national fight to stop HIV 
and AIDS.
  Mr. Speaker, December 1 is World AIDS Day, and this year marks 30 
years after the first discovery of AIDS cases. The United States and 
the HIV/AIDS community globally have made tremendous progress in our 
collective response to this domestic and global crisis. We have reduced 
the stigma surrounding the disease and strengthened education and 
outreach activities which continue to prevent millions of new cases of 
HIV worldwide. The scientific community has improved the treatment of 
HIV and AIDS with anti-retrovirals and combination therapies, and 
recent breakthroughs have revolutionized the way we think about AIDS.
  We have come a long way in our battle against AIDS. Contracting HIV 
no longer has to be a death sentence. But we have much more work to do. 
Not everyone who is HIV positive has access to these life-saving 
therapies. For the one in three Americans who are poor or near poor, 
HIV can still be the same death sentence that it was during the Reagan 
Presidency. Today, nearly one in five Americans with HIV do not even 
know their status, and only about half of Americans who do know their 
status are receiving the treatment that they need.
  For the 100 million Americans either in poverty or living on the edge 
of poverty, much more must be done. Access to the drug cocktails, high-
quality health care, housing, and healthy foods that are all critical 
for people living with HIV are out of reach for far too many.
  Mr. Speaker, 30 years later, we continue to shortchange HIV efforts 
in poverty-stricken communities; we fail to fully include women in 
outreach education and treatment; and we lack the resources for 
communities of color. This is just simply unconscionable.
  Women of color and young gay and bisexual men still receive the most 
severe burden of HIV in the United States. African Americans represent 
approximately 14 percent of the United States population, but accounted 
for an estimated 44 percent of new infections in 2009. And we know the 
numbers are on the rise in Latino communities and Asian Pacific 
American communities as well. These disproportionate rates of infection 
are not something that have happened in isolation. People of color 
continue to face higher rates of unemployment, incarceration, poverty 
and near poverty than their white counterparts. We can and we must do 
much better than this.
  We must do more for those who are disproportionately impacted by HIV 
and AIDS, both here in America and around the world. We must provide 
the science-based, comprehensive sex education that is proven to reduce 
the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. And we must grow past old 
fears and engage all community stakeholders to truly end the stigma 
surrounding the testing and treatment of this disease. We must repeal 
laws that legalize and promote discrimination and hate. We must support 
and expand programs which provide critical support for people living 
with HIV and AIDS and immediately--mind you, immediately--extend 
treatment to the thousands of Americans on the waiting list for life-
saving drugs.
  And of course we must fully implement the national HIV/AIDS strategy 
and support Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. These 
policies are the critical next steps in our fight to stop this terrible 
disease. And we must protect the fraction of one percent the Federal 
budget directed to our global AIDS programs through PEPFAR and the 
Global Fund.
  U.S. efforts are dramatically reducing the burden of HIV and AIDS in 
developing countries, and failing to support these programs would have 
dramatic national security and diplomatic implications for the United 
States--not to mention the humanitarian disaster that would occur. That 
is why last week I was very proud to be joined by over 100 Members of 
Congress in seeking appropriations of at least $5.25 billion for the 
PEPFAR program and $1.5 billion for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, 
Tuberculosis and Malaria. And I will enter this letter into the Record.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, I was proud to have played a role in 
overturning the unjust and ineffective HIV travel ban in 2008. And, 
now, for the very first time in 20 years, the International AIDS 
Conference will be held in Washington, D.C. in July of 2012.
  So let me encourage every Member and their staff to engage with the 
leading researchers and doctors in the worldwide fight against HIV and 
AIDS. Our global leadership will never be more important than at this 
promising moment of reversal, when we could move forward or we could go 
backwards. So I hope every Member will join our bipartisan 60-plus 
members of the HIV/AIDS Caucus.

                                Congress of the United States,

                                Washington, DC, November 21, 2011.
     Hon. Kay Granger,
     Chairman, Appropriations Subcommittee on State/Foreign 
         Operations, Washington, DC.
     Hon. Nita Lowey,
     Ranking Member, Appropriations Subcommittee on State/Foreign 
         Operations, Washington, DC.
     Hon. Patrick Leahy,
     Chairman, Appropriations Subcommittee on State/Foreign 
         Operations, Washington, DC.
     Hon. Lindsey Graham
     Ranking Member, Appropriations Subcommittee on State/Foreign 
         Operations, Washington, DC.
       Dear Chairmen Leahy and Granger, and Ranking Members Graham 
     and Lowey: As you begin negotiations on a final Fiscal Year 
     2012 Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related 
     Programs Appropriations bill, we write to respectfully 
     request that you secure funding for bilateral and 
     multilateral HIV/AIDS programs at the levels proposed in 
     S.1601, Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related 
     Programs Appropriations Act, 2012.
       We urge support for $7.9 billion for global health programs 
     contained in the Senate

[[Page H7939]]

     mark. More specifically, we urge you to support, at the very 
     least, $5.25 billion for the U.S. President's Emergency Plan 
     for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and $750 million for the Global Fund 
     to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, as explicitly 
     allocated in S. 1601. In total, we support $1.05 billion for 
     the Global Fund (of which $300 million is contained in the 
     Senate Labor, Health and Human Services appropriations bill). 
     Moreover, we are strongly opposed to language contained in 
     the House Subcommittee Mark prohibiting funding for syringe 
     exchange programs, which are proven to reduce the incidence 
     of HIV infection.
       U.S. global health programs including PEPFAR, along with 
     U.S. contributions to the Global Fund, are reducing disease 
     burden in low- and middle-income countries, and these 
     programs have important national security and diplomatic 
     elements for the United States. Global health programs 
     directly impact American security interests by stabilizing 
     parts of the world where extremism and a lack of alternatives 
     are a recipe for future conflict. The economic impact of 
     global health activities is also felt in the U.S., providing 
     thousands of jobs to help plan and implement global health 
     programming and to conduct health-related research at 
     colleges and universities.
       Thanks to the help of the United States, the Global Fund 
     has grown into a proven, country-driven, performance-based 
     mechanism which ensures that countries themselves are 
     responsible for building their own sustainable programs. The 
     Global Fund has a robust history of improving its function 
     and continues to do so through its recent announcement of an 
     improvements agenda to further ensure every dollar is 
     utilized effectively, remains accountable, and is transparent 
     in operation.
       We also welcome PEPFAR's leadership on advancing 
     combination HIV prevention approaches and urge the conferees 
     to ensure that these interventions are implemented to their 
     fullest and meet the needs of those most at-risk, especially 
     marginalized populations. Moreover, integration of HIV/AIDS 
     prevention, care and treatment programs--and, where 
     appropriate, other critical global health programs funded by 
     this bill, including maternal health, child survival, family 
     planning/reproductive health, and nutrition--is critical for 
     ensuring that the health needs of individuals are met and the 
     impact of funding is maximized.
       In recent months, U.S.-funded research has made enormous 
     progress in shaping the response to AIDS and malaria 
     worldwide. These remarkable scientific advances call for a 
     renewed emphasis on ensuring that we maintain robust support 
     for PEPFAR and the Global Fund and continue the vital U.S. 
     commitment to the fight against global HIV/AIDS, TB and 
     malaria.
       These programs amount to a fraction of one percent of the 
     federal budget, but they affect the lives of tens of 
     millions, guard against future conflicts, open up developing 
     markets, and will have lasting impact on the global AIDS 
     epidemic in the long term.
       Thank you for considering this request.
         Barbara Lee, Member of Congress; Wm. Lacy Clay, Member of 
           Congress; Bobby Rush, Member of Congress; Maurice 
           Hinchey, Member of Congress; Donna Christensen, Member 
           of Congress; Donald Payne, Member of Congress; John 
           Lewis, Member of Congress; Keith Ellison, Member of 
           Congress; Emanuel Cleaver, Member of Congress; Dale 
           Kildee, Member of Congress; Sheila Jackson Lee, Member 
           of Congress; Pete Stark, Member of Congress; Tammy 
           Baldwin, Member of Congress; John Conyers, Jr., Member 
           of Congress; John Sarbanes, Member of Congress; Mike 
           Quigley, Member of Congress; Eleanor Holmes Norton, 
           Member of Congress; Gwen Moore, Member of Congress; 
           Karen Bass, Member of Congress; Frederica Wilson, 
           Member of Congress; Diana DeGette, Member of Congress; 
           Yvette Clarke, Member of Congress; Edolphus Towns, 
           Member of Congress; Lynn Woolsey, Member of Congress; 
           Bruce Braley, Member of Congress; Raul Grijalva, Member 
           of Congress; Barney Frank, Member of Congress; Donna 
           Edwards, Member of Congress; Lucille Roybal-Allard, 
     Member of Congress; Janice Schakowsky, Member of Congress; 
     Theodore Deutch, Member of Congress; Alcee Hastings, 
     Member of Congress; Terri Sewell, Member of Congress; Jim 
     McDermott, Member of Congress; Tim Ryan, Member of 
     Congress; Grace Napolitano, Member of Congress; Russ 
     Carnahan, Member of Congress; Marcia Fudge, Member of 
     Congress; Colleen Hanabusa, Member of Congress; Hansen 
     Clarke, Member of Congress; Sanford Bishop, Member of 
     Congress; Ed Perlmutter, Member of Congress; Charles 
     Rangel, Member of Congress; Robert Brady, Member of 
     Congress; G.K. Butterfield, Member of Congress; Eliot 
     Engel, Member of Congress; Eddie Bernice Johnson, Member 
     of Congress; Henry Waxman, Member of Congress; Danny 
     Davis, Member of Congress; Mike Honda, Member of Congress; 
     Sam Farr, Member of Congress; David Scott, Member of 
     Congress; Joe Baca, Member of Congress; Betty Sutton, 
     Member of Congress; John Garamendi, Member of Congress; 
     Melvin Watt, Member of Congress; Dennis Kucinich, Member 
     of Congress; Maxine Waters, Member of Congress; Cedric 
     Richmond, Member of Congress; Jackie Speier, Member of 
     Congress; Doris Matsui, Member of Congress; Carolyn 
     Maloney, Member of Congress; Bobby Scott, Member of 
     Congress; Steve Cohen, Member of Congress; Laura 
     Richardson, Member of Congress; Debbie Wasserman Schultz, 
     Member of Congress; Ruben Hinojosa, Member of Congress; 
     James Moran, Member of Congress; Gary Ackerman, Member of 
     Congress; Andre Carson, Member of Congress; Bennie 
     Thompson, Member of Congress; Hank Johnson, Member of 
     Congress; Al Green, Member of Congress; Judy Chu, Member 
     of Congress; Bob Filner, Member of Congress; Jared Polis, 
     Member of Congress; Corrine Brown, Member of Congress; 
     Chaka Fattah, Member of Congress; Albio Sires, Member of 
     Congress; Joseph Crowley, Member of Congress; Ed Pastor, 
     Member of Congress; Zoe Lofgren, Member of Congress; 
     Michael Capuano, Member of Congress; Louise Slaughter, 
     Member of Congress; Chris Van Hollen, Member of Congress; 
     Shelley Berkley, Member of Congress; Howard Berman, Member 
     of Congress; Jose Serrano, Member of Congress; Rosa 
     DeLauro, Member of Congress; Lois Capps, Member of 
     Congress; Luis Gutierrez, Member of Congress; David 
     Cicilline, Member of Congress; James McGovern, Member of 
     Congress; Jerrold Nadler, Member of Congress; David Price, 
     Member of Congress; Sander Levin, Member of Congress; 
     Madeleine Bordallo, Member of Congress; Rush Holt, Member 
     of Congress; Gregory Meeks, Member of Congress; John 
     Olver, Member of Congress; Elijah Cummings, Member of 
     Congress; Earl Blumenauer, Member of Congress; George 
     Miller, Member of Congress.

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