[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 19]
[Senate]
[Pages 25198-25199]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          GLOBAL AIDS FUNDING

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, last Saturday, just 7 days ago, I was in 
Cape Town, South Africa, for a conference sponsored by the Chicago 
Council on Foreign Relations. With me were my colleagues, Senator Susan 
Collins, Congresswoman Barbara Lee from the State of California, and we 
had an opportunity to visit an AIDS clinic, a clinic that is funded by 
the Global Fund. It is an area known as West Cape, and it is an 
extremely poor area. Many people are infected.
  South Africa may be the most devastated country on that continent 
when it comes to the disease of AIDS. To think that 25 percent of the 
men and women in the South African military are infected with AIDS, to 
think that most of the major employers in companies find that at least 
one-fourth of their workforce is infected, is an indication of the 
reach of this terrible disease.
  We went to this clinic because something historic was happening 
there. Because of the Global Fund and because of contributions from 
countries such as the United States, for the first time we are 
providing AIDS pills, ARV therapies to people who are infected. What 
that means is that for some of the poorest people on Earth, they will 
receive a few pills which, if they take them dutifully each day, they 
can live. And if they do not receive the pills, or don't take them, 
they will surely die. Think about that moment when they first heard of 
the possibility that they might be on the list to be saved with these 
drugs.
  So we went to this clinic where they are measuring the rate of the 
infection of these poor people, and if they are far enough along with 
their infection, where their life is threatened, they qualify. They 
waited on benches in a crowded room silently for hours, literally for 
hours for a chance to be examined in the hopes that they would receive 
these pills.
  Outside this clinic was a little dirt playground, just the most basic 
thing, filled with children. The kids were playing with everything they 
could find, stones and sticks and old rubber tires, just trying to 
while away the time together while they waited for their parents who 
were listening and waiting to be counseled to find out if they would be 
allowed to live or die. The children had no idea what was going on. 
They are just little kids. Some of them may be HIV-positive, too. But 
we walked by this playground, and the kids looked up at this delegation 
in their suits and ties walking through, and they looked at us and they 
waved, and we waved back, and I thought: I am going to go over and say 
hi to the kids.
  I no sooner took two steps toward these children when they left the 
playground, 30 or 40 of them, and gathered around me hugging me. And 
then, as they were hugging me, these little toddlers, these kids, 
spontaneously started singing the African national anthem. You could 
not script that. It sounds like a scene from a movie. It is real life. 
It happened a week ago. And in this clinic in West Cape, a miracle is 
occurring. The United States, because of its caring and compassion, has 
reached out through the Global Fund to give these children the chance 
that they will grow up with a parent. And for many children in Africa 
there is no chance--12 million AIDS orphans on that continent, more 
infections on the continent of Africa than any other place on Earth.
  We know how bad it is. We know it is getting worse. Take any minute 
that I speak in the Chamber, and in that 1-minute period of time, 
across the world 6 people will die from AIDS, and 10 more will become 
infected. So no matter what we are doing, as good as it is,

[[Page 25199]]

we are approaching this with steady steps going after this disease and 
epidemic while it races away from us infecting more people than we can 
possibly save with the resources we are putting into it. Stephen Lewis 
is a special envoy for the United Nations for HIV/AIDS in Africa, and 
he said, ``Never in human history have so many died for so little 
reason.'' Then he went on to say, speaking to me and to all of us, 
``You have a chance to alter the course of that history. Can there be 
any task more noble?'' This is the moral challenge of our generation.
  Mr. President, 60 years from now, 100 years from now, people will 
look back and judge us by what we have done with the global AIDS 
epidemic. Questions have been asked for almost six decades about what 
the world did in response to the Holocaust. We will be asked by future 
generations: What did you do about this epidemic reaching Holocaust 
proportions and beyond? In 2002, the countries that came together to 
form the Global Fund said we are going to fight AIDS and malaria and 
tuberculosis, and all the countries committed some $3 billion to almost 
300 programs to go after those diseases in nearly 130 different 
countries. Since the beginning, the United States has been involved and 
we have said for every dollar that we contribute, we want $2 from the 
rest of the world.
  In some years we have fallen short. In some years the rest of the 
world has fallen short. But we need to continue to make a contribution.
  Now, what troubles me is this: Last year, as a nation, we contributed 
$547 million to the Global Fund. This year we will contribute less. The 
disease is not under control. The disease is growing faster than our 
contributions toward ending it. This year if we are lucky we will 
contribute $438 million--far short of last year's contribution. And the 
Global Fund tells us that they need $551 million from the United 
States. They will find matching funds 2 to 1 from around the world, and 
they have plenty of projects just like the one I described to you.
  In that West Cape clinic right now 550 victims of HIV/AIDS are 
receiving the therapy that keeps them alive every day--550.
  The universe of those who are eligible is 4,000, to give you an idea. 
As we contribute to the Global Fund, we are scratching the surface of 
what this disease is doing to the world around us. As we reduce our 
contributions to this Global Fund, it limits our ability to save 
people.
  I have spoken, of course, about HIV/AIDS. The challenge of malaria is 
just as alarming. The Global Fund has been financing the treatment of 
over 30 million people for over 5 years, a huge increase from the 
10,000 people currently treated with new drugs. They need money to do 
it. People die from malaria as they do from so many other things.
  In addition, we have to understand that the fight against 
tuberculosis is one we can win but one we must assume our 
responsibility for.
  We need to make certain when the supplemental appropriations bills 
come before Congress, as they are likely to in the next several months, 
that we revisit our contribution to the Global Fund, not just for those 
kids in Africa but for ourselves. That life lost in Africa may seem so 
distant and removed from our own lives but in some ways we are 
connected. We are all God's children. We all believe this Creator put 
us on Earth for a purpose, and that purpose is to care for the less 
fortunate of our brethren.
  At the International AIDS Conference in Bangkok last July, Nelson 
Mandela, who is probably one of the greatest living people, declared:

       History will surely judge us harshly if we do not respond 
     with all the energy and resources that we can bring to bear 
     in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

  Nelson Mandela is right. History will stand in judgment of the bill 
we pass today, the supplemental bill that will come, and the resolve of 
this Congress and this administration to make sure that we continue to 
lead the world in this historic humanitarian effort.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The distinguished Senator from Tennessee is 
recognized.

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