[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 23]
[Senate]
[Page 32072]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             WORLD AIDS DAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PAYNE. Madam Speaker, I rise in recognition of World AIDS Day 
2007. As chairman of the Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, the 
issue of HIV and AIDS is a particular matter of concern and importance 
to many of us. But it is an urgent and timely matter of global concern. 
It is urgent because HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria kill more 
than 6 million people a year.
  Of the 33 million people living with AIDS today, 6 percent are 
children. Ninety percent of these children live in Africa, the 
continent least equipped to care and treat HIV-infected persons. Those 
numbers will increase if the world does not immediately step up efforts 
to halt the spread of AIDS.
  The topic is extremely timely because the mandate of the President's 
emergency plan for HIV and AIDS, PEPFAR, expires in 2008. My colleagues 
and I on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs are in the midst of 
writing legislation to extend the PEPFAR program for another 5 years.
  Congress and the President worked together to create PEPFAR in May of 
2003. Now, a few short years later, according to the State Department's 
Office of Global AIDS Coordinator, over 800,000 people are receiving 
anti-retro medication in PEPFAR's 15 focus countries; 12 of those 
countries are in sub-Saharan Africa. Nearly 50,000 new patients join 
those receiving the life-saving therapy each month. We have indeed come 
a long way. However, the battle continues, and Congress must make 
decisions about how to expand and improve the program if we are to 
bring an end to this very terrible disease.
  The biggest decision before us is how much money to devote to the 
program. The original legislation authorized $15 billion over 5 years. 
Congress actually appropriated over $19 billion over that time fighting 
HIV and AIDS abroad.
  One year ago, I said in a speech in Nairobi, Kenya, on World AIDS Day 
last year that we should double PEPFAR funding. Several months later, 
to my surprise, I must say, President Bush also called on Congress to 
provide $30 billion to fight the disease over the next 5 years. After 
holding two hearings on the status of the pandemic, however, I do not 
believe that this will be enough. Analysts say that supporting 
universal access over the next 5 years will cost an estimated $213 
billion, 70 percent of which donors are expected to pay.
  If the United States shoulders its traditional share of the burden, 
it will cost us an estimated $49 billion, $10 billion a year for the 
next half decade to respond to the needs of those affected by HIV and 
AIDS. And this does not include the cost of malaria and tuberculosis 
programs. Not only are we falling short in terms of prevention and 
treatment of HIV and AIDS; we are not doing enough to address 
opportunistic diseases that kill people with AIDS, the deadliest of 
which is tuberculosis. In 2004, of the 9 million people who were newly 
infected with TB, 2 million died. However, TB is entirely curable.
  And last year, the public became aware of an even greater threat, a 
new, more dangerous, multi-drug-resistant TB, MDR-TB strain, which is 
known as extensively drug resistant TB or XDR-TB. XDR-TB and its deadly 
linkage with HIV gained global recognition in August 6, 2006, with 
reports of an outbreak in a hospital in South Africa where 52 of 53 
patients with HDR-TB died, half within a matter of 16 days.
  Earlier this year I offered an amendment which passed in fiscal year 
2008 Foreign Operations bill with $50 million additional funding to 
fight XDR-TB. I hope to work with our leaders to see additional funding 
next year.
  The statistics about HIV and AIDS may seem overwhelming and the 
problem insurmountable, but it is not. We can bring an end to this 
pandemic if we work together.

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