April 03, 2006
“Our global AIDS prevention policy should be based on proven, evidence-based science,” said Lee. “Unfortunately, this report demonstrates the Bush administration’s willingness to make AIDS prevention policy a political plaything in their ongoing effort to appease the radical right. We should be relying on science, not ideology, to stop this pandemic. We need a sound public health policy, not political pandering.”
The GAO report found that the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator was applying the earmark to all PEPFAR prevention funds, beyond what was required by law—amounting to an additional $35 million in fiscal year 2006.
The GAO further found that in seeking to meet the abstinence-only-until-marriage earmark, 17 of the 20 PEPFAR country teams had faced difficulties in integrating the comprehensive Abstain, Be faithful, use a Condom (ABC) prevention model and in responding to local needs, local epidemiology, and distinctive social and cultural patterns. As a result, country teams that were not exempted from the earmark were forced to cut funding for other prevention programs intended to prevent the transmission of HIV from pregnant mothers to their children, and programs targeting prevention for so called “high risk” groups including people living with HIV/AIDS.
“The GAO report is clear. The abstinence-only earmark prevents our country teams from carrying out programs that respond directly to the needs of the population they are trying to serve. That’s exactly what we were worried about when we fought the original amendment establishing the funding earmark in 2003 and why I will soon be reintroducing legislation to repeal this misguided earmark and ensure that our global AIDS programs are based on sound science not ideology.”
Lee was a coauthor of the bipartisan legislation that established PEPFAR in 2003 and which designated $15 billion for the prevention, care, and treatment of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. She also co-authored the Global AIDS and Tuberculosis Relief Act of 2000, which established the framework for the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. To date, the Global Fund has committed $4.4 billion in 128 countries to support aggressive interventions against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. In 2005, she successfully passed legislation to focus U.S. foreign assistance on the impact of AIDS on orphans and vulnerable children in developing countries.
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Barbara Lee Responds to GAO Report on Abstinence-Only Earmark
(Washington, DC) – Today, Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), senior most Democratic woman on the House International Relations Committee and co-author of the legislation establishing the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), responded to a report released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on the negative impact of the Congressionally mandated 33 percent earmark of global AIDS prevention funds for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs.“Our global AIDS prevention policy should be based on proven, evidence-based science,” said Lee. “Unfortunately, this report demonstrates the Bush administration’s willingness to make AIDS prevention policy a political plaything in their ongoing effort to appease the radical right. We should be relying on science, not ideology, to stop this pandemic. We need a sound public health policy, not political pandering.”
The GAO report found that the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator was applying the earmark to all PEPFAR prevention funds, beyond what was required by law—amounting to an additional $35 million in fiscal year 2006.
The GAO further found that in seeking to meet the abstinence-only-until-marriage earmark, 17 of the 20 PEPFAR country teams had faced difficulties in integrating the comprehensive Abstain, Be faithful, use a Condom (ABC) prevention model and in responding to local needs, local epidemiology, and distinctive social and cultural patterns. As a result, country teams that were not exempted from the earmark were forced to cut funding for other prevention programs intended to prevent the transmission of HIV from pregnant mothers to their children, and programs targeting prevention for so called “high risk” groups including people living with HIV/AIDS.
“The GAO report is clear. The abstinence-only earmark prevents our country teams from carrying out programs that respond directly to the needs of the population they are trying to serve. That’s exactly what we were worried about when we fought the original amendment establishing the funding earmark in 2003 and why I will soon be reintroducing legislation to repeal this misguided earmark and ensure that our global AIDS programs are based on sound science not ideology.”
Lee was a coauthor of the bipartisan legislation that established PEPFAR in 2003 and which designated $15 billion for the prevention, care, and treatment of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. She also co-authored the Global AIDS and Tuberculosis Relief Act of 2000, which established the framework for the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. To date, the Global Fund has committed $4.4 billion in 128 countries to support aggressive interventions against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. In 2005, she successfully passed legislation to focus U.S. foreign assistance on the impact of AIDS on orphans and vulnerable children in developing countries.