[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 14894-14898]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 TOM LANTOS AND HENRY J. HYDE UNITED STATES GLOBAL LEADERSHIP AGAINST 
    HIV/AIDS, TUBERCULOSIS, AND MALARIA REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2008

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
resume consideration of S. 2731, which the clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (S. 2731) to authorize appropriations for fiscal 
     years 2009 through 2013 to provide assistance to foreign 
     countries to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, and 
     for other purposes.

  Pending:

       DeMint amendment No. 5077, to reduce to $35,000,000,000 the 
     amount authorized to be appropriated to combat HIV/AIDS, 
     tuberculosis, and malaria in developing countries during the 
     next 5 years.
       DeMint amendment No. 5078, to limit the countries to which 
     Federal financial assistance may be targeted under this Act.
       DeMint amendment No. 5079 (to amendment No. 5078), to 
     prevent certain uses of the Global Fund.

  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I see my friend from South Carolina is 
here. I ask unanimous consent there be no second-degree amendments in 
order to the DeMint amendment, No. 5077.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                           Amendment No. 5078

  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I am shortly going to move to table the 
DeMint amendment, No. 5078, relating to abortion. Senator DeMint and I 
had a very brief conversation prior to this.
  I ask unanimous consent there be 2 minutes equally divided for the 
Senator to make his position known.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BIDEN. I yield to my colleague from South Carolina.
  Mr. DeMINT. Mr. President, the motion to table involves two 
amendments. It is important my colleagues understand what is involved. 
The current PEPFAR Program focuses on 15 countries with epidemics of 
AIDS and malaria. The current authorization allows them to work in 110 
countries in which they are working now, but the focus has been part of 
making this program successful.
  My amendment would limit the focus of the current PEPFAR bill on the 
Senate floor to the authorized countries in the first bill so the money 
is not spread all over the world to countries that do not need it as 
much as Africa and the others.
  But the other amendment, and the reason this is being tabled, is it 
proposes that we do not allow PEPFAR funds to be used through the U.N. 
Global Fund for forced abortions and forced sterilization in China and 
other countries. The law of the land in this country is that our 
taxpayer dollars are not used for forced abortion. All this does is 
make sure the money in PEPFAR does not end up with programs like they 
have in China that force abortions.
  I encourage my colleagues to vote no against tabling these amendments 
so we would be sure that PEPFAR funds are being used where and the way 
that they are intended to be used.
  I reserve the remainder of my time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware is recognized.
  Mr. BIDEN. The underlying amendment, first-degree amendment, which I 
am moving to table would limit U.S. assistance to certain countries. 
Right now PEPFAR is working in 120 countries, and to limit it to 15 I 
think is very counterproductive.
  I move to table the amendment, and I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There is a 
sufficient second. The question is on agreeing to the motion.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk called the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. 
Kennedy), the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Lautenberg), and the Senator 
from Illinois (Mr. Obama) are necessarily absent.
  Mr. KYL. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Tennessee (Mr. Alexander), the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. 
Corker), and the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain).
  Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. 
Alexander) would have voted ``nay.''
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 70, nays 24, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 175 Leg.]

                                YEAS--70

     Akaka
     Baucus
     Bayh
     Bennett
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Boxer
     Brown
     Brownback
     Byrd
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Clinton
     Cochran
     Coleman
     Collins
     Conrad
     Dodd
     Dole
     Domenici
     Dorgan
     Durbin
     Feingold
     Feinstein
     Gregg
     Hagel
     Harkin
     Hatch
     Hutchison
     Inouye
     Johnson
     Kerry
     Klobuchar
     Kohl
     Landrieu
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lincoln
     Lugar
     Martinez
     McCaskill
     Menendez
     Mikulski
     Murkowski
     Murray
     Nelson (FL)
     Nelson (NE)
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Roberts
     Rockefeller
     Salazar
     Sanders
     Schumer
     Shelby
     Snowe
     Specter
     Stabenow
     Stevens
     Sununu
     Tester
     Voinovich
     Warner
     Webb
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                                NAYS--24

     Allard
     Barrasso
     Bond
     Bunning
     Burr
     Chambliss
     Coburn
     Cornyn
     Craig
     Crapo
     DeMint
     Ensign
     Enzi
     Graham
     Grassley
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Kyl
     McConnell
     Sessions
     Smith
     Thune
     Vitter
     Wicker

                             NOT VOTING--6

     Alexander
     Corker
     Kennedy
     Lautenberg
     McCain
     Obama
  The motion was agreed to.
  Mrs. BOXER. I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. NELSON of Florida. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
  Mr. DURBIN. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. STABENOW. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum 
call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                  21st Century Manufacturing Strategy

  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I rise, in light of the news today by 
General Motors and certainly the ongoing news from American automakers 
and manufacturers, to express, again, concern about the fact that we 
have had no 21st century manufacturing policy

[[Page 14895]]

for the last 8 years. As other countries are rushing to invest in new 
innovative technology, advanced battery technology, the next generation 
of vehicles, as Germany has announced the great battery alliance which 
will invest over $650 million in advanced lithium ion batteries; South 
Korea, by 2010, will have spent $700 million on advanced batteries and 
developing hybrid vehicles; China has invested over $100 million in 
advanced battery research and development; over the next 5 years Japan 
will spend about $230 million on advanced battery research and $278 
million a year on hydrogen research for zero-emission fuel cell 
vehicles; in this country, our President's budget last year called for 
$22 million. We have seen no willingness to aggressively invest in a 
21st century manufacturing strategy to keep jobs in America. As a 
result, we have seen 3.5 million manufacturing jobs lost since this 
administration took office in 2001.
  My home State of Michigan is proud that we make things and grow 
things and do it well and have, in fact, created the middle class of 
this country. We have lost over 250,000 manufacturing jobs--in fact, 
going on 300,000--since this administration took office. In fact, we 
now have the same number of manufacturing jobs that we had in September 
of 1952. I won't tell how old I was then, but I wasn't very old in 
1952. Now we are back to the same number of manufacturing jobs, while 
every other country is rushing to invest in the future.
  The Senate budget resolution included, I am proud to say, a green-
collar jobs initiative which I authored to invest in battery 
technology. I appreciate the fact that the leader has supported that 
effort and the chairman of the Energy and Water Committee, Senator 
Dorgan, has supported the effort to increase dollars for advanced 
battery technology research. We also included in the Energy bill last 
year a retooling effort of our plans to advanced manufacturing and 
alternative fueled vehicles. That needs to be activated and has not yet 
been activated.
  When I look around at what is happening in Michigan now and across 
the country, what is happening to the middle class, being squeezed on 
all sides with incomes going down and every cost conceivable going up, 
particularly outrageously high gas prices, then I look at our 
manufacturers which are impacted by those gas prices as well, impacted 
by unfair trade practices, where other economies, other countries close 
their doors to American automakers to make it more difficult to sell 
there while they are able to sell here, where Japan manipulates their 
currency, as well as China, and yet we don't see an aggressive effort 
to create a level playing field on trade so we can export our products, 
not our jobs; when I see the fact that other countries are investing in 
new technologies and yet our industries are expected to be doing it 
themselves without a partnership from their Federal Government--what we 
have done is placed our companies in the position of competing with 
other countries. My colleague from Michigan, Senator Levin, has said 
that over and over again, the fact that our companies are competing 
with other countries today. We need to take action now to provide a 
21st century manufacturing strategy that keeps jobs here.
  Part of that is also health care. When we are looking at competition 
coming from companies in Japan, where I am told that the cost per 
vehicle for health care is about $95 and here it is $1,500, we can do 
something about that, to be able to support our jobs and our industries 
here in America and keep jobs at home.
  Right now we have an opportunity I hope we will take. I hope as we 
move forward with an additional discussion of an emergency 
supplemental, as we move forward and look at other emergency actions 
that need to take place, we will understand we need to be activating 
our retooling efforts to keep advanced manufacturing, the new vehicles, 
here, and we need to invest in the key component, which is advanced 
battery technology research, to make sure when our automakers are 
making hybrids and plug-ins they are not buying the battery from 
another country.
  That is what is happening today. We had, a couple years ago, an 
announcement from Ford Motor Company about the Ford Escape hybrid, and 
we were very proud of the fact they created the first hybrid SUV. That 
is the good news. The bad news is, they could not find a battery in the 
United States. The battery had to be bought in Japan. We do not want to 
exchange foreign dependence on oil for foreign dependence on 
technology. We have to act now.
  I call on the administration that has now put dollars into advanced 
battery efforts to do more. There is more that can be done under the 
Department of Energy. It needs to be done as quickly as possible. We 
are in a race, we are in an economic race, for the next generation of 
technology. Whoever gets there first will be creating the jobs as well 
as the marketplace for the future and, I believe, creating the middle 
class of the future as well.
  We need to make sure the plants in America are retooled so the new 
generation of vehicles being made are not being made overseas for 
Americans, but they are being made here. We need to be retooling. It is 
critically important. We have lost 3.5 million manufacturing jobs since 
this administration took office--no 21st-century manufacturing 
strategy, no focusing on unfair trade practices, high health care 
costs, innovation, investment, retooling. Now, adding insult to injury 
with the price of gas on top of everything else, we find our 
manufacturers caught on all sides right now trying to make the 
investments for the next generation, for the future, to be competitive, 
but also to deal with the costs they have as a result of lack of action 
in this country, in order to be able to make sure we are competitive 
internationally.
  Again, Germany, the Great Battery Alliance; South Korea; China; 
Japan--all focused on the future, all partnering with their industries 
because they understand what it means to their economy to be able to 
have that technology, to be able to be the first, to be able to partner 
with their industries to create new jobs.
  That is what we need to be doing here and now. It makes me heartsick 
to see the daily headlines in the newspapers in Michigan as well as in 
many places across the country when it should not have to happen. If we 
had seen the administration being willing to work with us, to partner 
with us on the future, on jobs in America, we would not be where we are 
today.
  I am very hopeful and confident our Democratic majority understands 
that, and that we are going to continue to do everything we can to be 
able to create the kind of economic climate in this country that will 
allow us to create good paying jobs, great advanced alternative fuel 
vehicles and products we will continue to be proud of, and will allow 
us to keep the middle class in this country.
  I think that is the biggest task we have right now in a global 
economy: to fight for jobs and the middle class in this country. We 
need a change in partnership to help us get that done.
  Thank you, Mr. President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The assistant majority leader is recognized.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 2:15 p.m., 
Senator Menendez be recognized to speak for up to 15 minutes, to be 
followed by Senator Domenici for 15 minutes, and that following Senator 
Domenici's remarks, Senator Kyl be recognized to offer an amendment.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                                 Darfur

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, most of us are aware of the genocide in 
Darfur. We have read about it for years. The best estimates are that 
400,000 people have died as a result of the terrible tragedy in the 
Sudan. Another 2 million or more have been displaced.
  Just this week, the International Criminal Court has named the 
President of Sudan as a person to be indicted for war crimes, crimes 
against humanity, and genocide. It is an indication of the severity of 
this crisis and the fact that the world is taking note.
  What we also know is that other things are happening in this world 
that are just as devastating, and some of them are within our grasp to 
change.

[[Page 14896]]

  A few years ago, I made my first trip to Africa in an effort to see 
the feeding programs available for people in some of the poorest places 
on Earth. I also wanted to take a look at the microcredit programs that 
elevate women and give them a chance to finally raise their families 
properly and to have a future.
  But I found that no matter where I went in Africa, the same issue 
commanded my attention. That was the global AIDS crisis. It was a 
crisis which was just starting at that point, but the numbers were so 
alarming that you could see trends developing that would be devastating 
to communities and families and even countries.
  At the time, it seemed there was nothing we could do. The drugs that 
were being developed in the United States were few and very expensive, 
and the notion of bringing those antiretroviral drugs into Africa 
seemed beyond our grasp. So they encouraged people in Africa, in those 
days, to get tested. But many of them ignored it because they knew if 
they were tested positive it was a simple death sentence, and they 
would have to resign themselves to the obvious fate.
  But things have changed, thank goodness, and they have changed for 
the better. Under President Bush, he described and started an 
initiative to deal with the global AIDS crisis. As I have said on the 
floor many times, I have disagreed with the President on so many 
things, but I certainly believe this was an inspired position which he 
took, that the United States would lead the world in dealing with the 
global AIDS crisis.
  We were not only going to address HIV and AIDS, but also tuberculosis 
and malaria. In many countries, more people are dying from the latter 
two than even HIV/AIDS. The President chose 15 countries that the 
United States would deal with directly in the President's program. Then 
for the rest of the world in need, we would work with other countries 
in what is known as the Global Fund.
  Before us today on the floor of the Senate is the President's program 
for dealing with global AIDS. I think it is one of the most important 
votes we are going to cast this year. The success of this program has 
brought us a long way in the last 5 or 6 years.
  Mr. President, 5 or 6 years ago, only 50,000 people in Sub-Saharan 
Africa were receiving treatment--50,000. Today, PEPFAR and the Global 
Fund reach nearly 2 million people, primarily in Africa.
  In the 15 PEPFAR focus countries, the program has helped prevent 
mother-to-child HIV transmission during nearly 12.7 million 
pregnancies. An HIV-positive mother nursing a child, if she is not 
treated properly, could transmit the disease. The treatment is very 
inexpensive, and a mother taking this drug before she delivers the baby 
can protect her child through childbirth and perhaps afterwards. We 
have done that now for 12.7 million pregnancies.
  We have provided antiretroviral prophylaxis for well over 800,000 
women who were determined to be HIV positive and prevented over 150,000 
new infections of newborn children just through this program.
  We have cared for more than 6.6 million people, including more than 
2.7 million orphans and children.
  We have provided over 33 million HIV counseling and testing sessions 
for men, women, and children.
  From fiscal year 2004 through 2007, PEPFAR, the President's program 
on AIDS, supported nearly 2.6 million training and continuing education 
encounters for health care workers.
  That is a remarkable record of progress in just 5 years. This 
situation on the ground in Africa has been literally transformed 
because of the efforts of the United States--and other countries--but 
the efforts of the United States through PEPFAR and the Global Fund.
  The bill before us authorizes $50 billion over 5 years, including $9 
billion for tuberculosis and malaria. It is a large sum of money, but 
put it in context. Each month, we spend $12 to $15 billion on the war 
in Iraq. We are talking about spending $10 billion over the course of a 
year to deal with the global AIDS crisis, tuberculosis, and malaria.
  The bill requires the President to develop a strategy for spending 
that will prevent 12 million new infections, that will treat and care 
for at least 14 million people, including 5 million children, make sure 
women have universal access to prevention of mother-to-child 
transmission, and will build the health care capacity of the countries 
that are most affected.
  I went to the Congo--the Democratic Republic of the Congo--with 
Senator Brownback of Kansas a few years ago, and we visited the city of 
Goma. Goma is in the northeastern section of the Democratic Republic of 
the Congo. It is a very poor city, and it has so many--so many--
challenges: hunger, disease, war, and, on top of that, a volcano.
  We visited a hospital there that was packed with people, in this case 
with women who were seeking a surgery for obstetric fistula. They were 
women, because of sexual assault or a birth at a very early age, ended 
up with serious internal problems that required surgery, and there was 
nowhere to turn. They were shunned in their villages and by their 
families because of the problems associated with this condition.
  Many of them marched and trekked hundreds of miles to get to this 
hospital. It is called DOCS Hospital. It is supported by the Protestant 
Churches of America. We saw the women waiting outside, huddled around 
little fires making their food, waiting for the chance for their 
surgery. Sometimes they waited for months, and oftentimes they needed a 
repeat surgery.
  After the surgery, they would go into these wards with beds, and the 
patients were two to a single bed. There just was no place to turn. 
This was their only hope. Thanks to the United Nations, they had a 
modern surgical suite, but clearly they did not have the health 
capacity to deal with this obvious problem.
  I asked them: How many surgeons do you have in this area of the 
Congo?
  They said: We have one surgeon for every 1 million people.
  I am proud to represent the city of Chicago. I cannot imagine the 
city of Chicago with three surgeons. But that is what they face in 
parts of Africa. The same thing is true when it comes to other 
professionals: doctors and nurses. Part of the problem is just not 
their failure to train these medical professionals, but the fact that 
we in the West, with our voracious appetite for medical care, are 
poaching the best and brightest of the medical professionals in the 
developing world.
  Take a look around your city, go to your local hospital. I just 
visited a Chicago hospital over the weekend and was introduced to a 
number of the members of the staff. I asked two of the women where they 
were from, and they said Ghana. Ghana is in Africa, obviously. My guess 
is that the community they left needed their medical care as much if 
not more than the United States. But they were drawn to the United 
States for obvious reasons.
  The surgeons I mentioned in the Congo are paid by the Government. If 
they are fortunate enough to be paid--and they are not always paid--
they are paid $600 a month. Well, a surgeon in the United States is 
going to do much better than that. So the United States, England, 
France, and Germany recruit these medical professionals from the 
poorest places on Earth, and those countries, then faced with HIV/AIDS, 
tuberculosis, malaria, and other obvious surgical needs, don't have the 
professionals.
  What difference does it make to us? We feel content that we have that 
nurse at our beck and call when we are in a hospital. We want all of 
our family to have the very best medical care. However, we have to 
accept the reality that a medical crisis halfway around the world can 
be visited on the United States of America within a matter of days. 
What used to result in a trip across the ocean in a ship where the 
sickly would die on the way no longer occurs. People take airplanes and 
in a matter of hours they are here, and they bring with them not only 
their foreign culture but many times their foreign diseases. So a 
public health crisis in some other part of the world has to be a 
genuine concern of ours as well.

[[Page 14897]]

  This bill we have before us recognizes that. It takes into account 
the need to expand the health care capacity of some of the poorest 
places on Earth, including training community health workers to deliver 
primary health care and preventive services. It includes some 
provisions I have worked on earlier, and I salute the committee for 
adding them relative to expanding the health care capacity in Africa. I 
had introduced a bill with five of my colleagues--S. 805--the African 
Health Capacity Act, and some of the provisions are included.
  I might say parenthetically that we need to find a solution to our 
problem in the United States, because we need nurses and doctors here 
as well, and the answer is pretty obvious. We need homegrown talent. 
This year, in my State of Illinois, we turned away 2,000 qualified 
nursing students. We didn't have enough classrooms or teachers or 
clinical opportunities. Two thousand would-be nurses were told: No, you 
won't be given admission to an Illinois school this year. When we 
consider the shortage in health care professionals, we can't afford to 
do that. Whether it is doctors or nurses or other health professionals, 
we need to be actively recruiting more in the United States so we 
aren't reaching out to the poorest places on Earth, poaching their 
talent, when they desperately need it as well.
  This bill goes on to expand current programs. It funds the testing, 
counseling, treatment and new protocols to address drug resistance in 
treating tuberculosis. Our colleague, Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, 
has been a leader in the House, and now in the Senate, on the issue of 
tuberculosis. Most of us pay little attention to this because it is an 
illness and disease that affects the poor. However, we probably noted 
in the news not long ago when there was a person who wasn't poor who 
was banned from travel because he was carrying this disease--this drug-
resistant, rather, form of tuberculosis. So we understand this can 
affect others outside of those who are impoverished. The goal is to do 
more work worldwide to deal with this with testing, counseling, and 
treatment.
  Incidentally, the treatment of tuberculosis in its most common form 
is inexpensive. It requires a dutiful process to make sure the person 
takes their medicine on a regular basis. Some countries such as India 
have found out how to do this and are leading the way and we should 
follow their example.
  This bill also strengthens the role of the U.S. malaria coordinator. 
It increases the U.S. contribution to the Global Fund with additional 
safeguards and oversight, and it funds research on microbicides to help 
prevent the spread of HIV. It is a good bill and it covers a lot of 
different things.
  We are at a point now where we are in a battle with many forces in 
this world who are trying to define the United States and tell people 
around the world who we are. Many of those representations are false 
and misleading. Unfortunately, they create enemies of the United 
States--people who should be our friends. I think when the United 
States embarks on this kind of effort--a global health effort--with 
tangible results in countries around the world, we demonstrate our 
values and our caring. That is why I think this bill is so important. I 
am sorry it has been held up for a number of months, but the good news 
is it is on the floor now and we have a chance to pass it.
  This bill would require that more than half of the money appropriated 
for addressing local HIV/AIDS be spent on antiretroviral drug treatment 
and care, controlling other infections that can occur. It provides 
nutrition and food support and other medical care essential to HIV/AIDS 
treatment.
  The critics of this bill say it goes too far--not just in the money 
spent, which I disagree with--but in what they call mission creep. They 
argue that nutrition and safe drinking water and empowerment of women 
and girls bears little relation to the fight against global AIDS. They 
believe you should give individuals a pill and send them on their way. 
Well, common sense suggests otherwise. If you visit the poorest places 
on Earth and have time to ask only one question, I have found that the 
question you should ask, if you want to know whether this country has a 
chance to overcome its problems, is this: How do you treat your women? 
If women are treated like property, slaves, or chattel, if they have no 
voices in decisions of the family or community, it is likely that some 
of the worst medical conditions and economic conditions will continue 
and will worsen; but if women have a role--if they are educated; if 
they have a voice in their communities and in their government--it 
makes all the difference in the world.
  So in this bill, when we talk about empowering women and girls 
through education, training, and self-awareness, it is money well 
spent. These are the women who will guide that country in the future 
and who will be a strong voice in a family where otherwise they might 
be mistreated or infected without even being able to speak a word.
  I also think it is obvious that handing medicine to someone who is 
infected isn't enough. I have been to Nairobi and Kenya. I have seen 
the clinic where women who are receiving these expensive antiretroviral 
drugs were dying before my eyes--not of HIV/AIDS, but of malnutrition. 
They were, with limited funds, providing for their children and not 
giving themselves enough to eat, so even the antiretroviral drugs 
weren't working.
  So when this bill talks about providing basic nutrition for people 
around the world, particularly women, so that the drugs will work, it 
is common sense. The same thing for safe drinking water. If there is 
one thing that causes more medical problems on this Earth, it is filthy 
drinking water which causes people, and children especially, to get 
sick and die. When we talk about safe drinking water as part of this 
whole program in dealing with global health, it is imminently sensible; 
and those who argue that it goes too far, we shouldn't include it in 
this bill, haven't taken the time to meet the people who live under 
these terrible circumstances.
  I hope this bill will pass and I hope it passes soon. We have been 
waiting for some time. Condoleezza Rice, our Secretary of State, and 
President Bush have asked us to move this bill forward to provide the 
technical and financial assistance to help countries develop their 
national health workforce, expand worker training and retention, build 
clinics and health networks.
  This bill sets a target of training and retaining 140,000 
professionals and paraprofessionals. If we can build that work force in 
the focus countries, we will have the minimum staffing levels of 
doctors and nurses and midwives recommended by the World Health 
Organization. We have to change the situation on the ground. Villages 
will continue to depend on donors for medicine and clinics until they 
develop their own health care capacity. We can start to change the 
situation with the technical assistance and financial aid authorized in 
this bill.
  The best response to the global AIDS crisis is to help these 
countries build a more sustainable, locally driven public health 
system. The bill is named after two former Members of the House of 
Representatives: Tom Lantos of California, who recently passed away, 
and Henry Hyde of Illinois, both of whom supported this legislation. In 
their name and in their honor, we should pass it and pass it as quickly 
as we can.
  I recall my first trip to Africa. I went to Uganda. There was a 
clinic there before any of the drugs had arrived where people had been 
diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. Some of the women at that clinic who had small 
children were involved in a project called the Memory Book. They would 
sit on the porch of this clinic while their children played on the 
playground. They were assembling their life story with photographs, 
telling about memories of their family and memories of their children 
when they were born and as they grew up. This memory book was going to 
be handed off to the child, still very young, to hold on to so that 
when mother was gone, having died of HIV/AIDS, there would at least be 
some evidence that she lived, some evidence of her love for that child.
  At this same clinic in the days before antiretroviral drugs, they had 
a choir.

[[Page 14898]]

It is not unusual. Almost every place you go in Africa, they sing. They 
sing when they greet you, they sing when you leave, they will sing in 
the middle of a meeting. It is beautiful. This choir at this clinic was 
a choir made up of men and women who had been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS 
and had nowhere to turn. They knew they were all doomed. They came 
together to sing songs they had written about their plight, and one of 
them--they gave me a small tape recording--is entitled ``Why Me?'' It 
was a song that broke your heart as you heard them sing it: Why her, 
why him, why you, why me--trying to figure out why this had happened to 
them, that they came down with this deadly disease and knew they would 
die.
  It wasn't that long ago when I made that trip. Today, things have 
changed. It has changed because the United States and the caring people 
of this country are stepping forward. Millions of people are now alive 
today. Millions of children who would have been orphaned now have a 
chance. Is this an important thing for us to do? I think it is. I think 
it is important in moral terms, but it is important in political terms 
too, to make sure that all around the world, people understand who we 
are, what our values are, and that we are a caring and compassionate 
people.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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