Barbara Lee Welcomes Bush Request for AIDS Funds
Renews Call for Elimination of Abstinence-Only Earmark
(Oakland, CA) - Congresswoman Barbara Lee, one of the original authors of legislation that created the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), released the following statement in response to President Bush's request today that Congress extend and increase the program:
“PEPFAR is one of the few foreign policy initiatives where the President has broad bipartisan support among the Congress. It has demonstrated real results by saving lives and preventing new infections, and deserves to be reauthorized and to have its funding increased.
“There are, however, still a few flaws in the program that we must fix in the next re-authorization. As the Institute of Medicine's recent report recommended, we must remove the abstinence-only-until-marriage prevention earmark and better focus our AIDS programs to empower women and girls, both of which can be accomplished by including my bill, the PATHWAY Act, in the re-authorization of PEPFAR.
“While the president's $30 billion proposal is welcome, it is also critical to recognize that if any such investment in our global AIDS programs is to be successful, it must be coupled with increases in funding for other core development and humanitarian programs, including for programs to address basic education, nutrition, the health worker shortages, water and food security and other diseases like malaria and TB.
“As a co-author of the original legislation that established PEPFAR, I look forward to working with my colleague, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Tom Lantos, in re-authorizing and strengthening our global AIDS programs in this Congress.”
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