[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12604-12605]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   14TH INTERNATIONAL AIDS CONFERENCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen) is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I too recently had the privilege of 
attending the 14th International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, Spain. I 
want to thank the House leadership for making it possible for me to 
join the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee). AIDS experts, activists 
and government representatives from all over the world assembled to 
share their invaluable knowledge and expertise in fighting the global 
HIV/AIDS pandemic and issuing a call to action.
  This is a critically important conference happening at a very 
important time. UNAIDS and the World Health Organization recently 
released an updated report of where we are today. The most important 
thing to realize is that we are still at the beginning, the beginning 
of this terrible scourge. Yet there are already over 40 million people 
estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS around the world today and an 
estimated 28 million who have died. At this incipient stage of the 
pandemic, there are already 13.4 million children orphaned by this 
disease. More than a third of those living with HIV and AIDS are under 
the age of 25.
  There are 5 million new infections each year, 6,000 new every day; 
and young people ages 15 to 24 account for half of all new infections. 
Even in developed nations such as the United States, young people 
continue to represent half of all new infections; and yet this is only 
the beginning. What lies ahead, the future course of this pandemic is 
in large measure in the hands of this body and our government.
  Mr. Speaker, we are at a critical stage in this pandemic. A major 
crossroads where our decision to act or not to act, or not to act 
fully, will determine the course of our own and world history from this 
time forward.
  Several things became increasingly clear even in the few days I was 
able to attend the conference. First, we have wasted a lot of time 
arguing over prevention versus treatment, and with that many lives have 
been lost and others changed forever. We have made dangerous and deadly 
assumptions that have kept life-saving treatments out of the hands of 
those who could otherwise have been saved. We have provided but token 
funding; and because we are falling short, the needed infrastructure is 
not in place to allow programs that began in homes, churches and 
community meeting places to expand across the infected countries so 
that they could save more lives and get on with the work of nation 
building.
  We, the United States, have the power to make the difference, to 
dramatically change the course of this dreaded disease by meeting our 
commitment to the global trust fund and by exerting our influence on 
the other industrialized nations to meet theirs. Yet the United States, 
the richest country in the world, despite the fanfare surrounding 
recent increases in our contributions, ranks last in those who have 
pledged for the global trust fund.
  To continue to fund this epidemic in drips and drabbles would be 
unconscionable because our delays and the delays of other nations have 
already caused it to spiral completely out of control on a global 
scale.
  Today, at home, our ADAP program needs an additional $80 million and 
the minority AIDS initiative needs $450 million. Globally, 10 billion 
dollars is what is needed every year; and we must commit and act to 
contribute at least our full share, not over a period of time, but now.
  It should be exceedingly clear that we cannot continue to fall short 
of providing the required level of funding. If we continue at the 
present level, we can anticipate another 45 million new infected 
persons within the next 20 years. It would also mean that there would 
be 20 million new children left without a mother or father, alone to 
grow up as orphans, denied of love and nurturing and probably education 
since the teachers too are among the dying. This portends a serious and 
ever-increasing threat to the national security of the most effected 
countries and, unless we think otherwise, also to ours.
  Mr. Speaker, clearly the time for arguing over what must come first 
must be behind us. We must have treatment and prevention. We must find 
ways in this dire emergency to put life-saving medication within the 
reach of all who need it. Neither should research be pitted against 
prevention and treatment, because the need for vaccine, which may be 
just a few years ahead and which is where hope truly lies, must be 
given all the resources it needs to go forward. As we approach its 
availability, we must begin to work even now to avoid the gaps in 
access that we

[[Page 12605]]

are still working to address in the case of medication.
  Lastly, we can not tie the hands of health professionals, community 
organizations, and workers as they work on the front lines of this 
epidemic. Family planning funding or population funding provides much 
of the first line of defense. Continuing to impose the values of a 
minority of Americans on countries where there are people just fighting 
to live by denying them the basic staff and supplies is not befitting a 
country that is built on Christian values and principles.
  I join my colleagues today to call on the leadership of this body and 
our President to provide the funding, to lift the gag, release the 
funding for all international family planning programs and provide the 
leadership which has always been our hallmark by making the full 
contribution to the global trust fund and influencing all of our allies 
to do the same.

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