May 21, 2003
The House had to approve the bill again after the Senate added an amendment that encouraged the Secretary of the Treasury to expand the Enhanced Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative to provide increased debt relief for countries ravaged by AIDS.
"I am pleased that the House has passed this truly historic legislation," said Lee, who has worked many years on both international and domestic HIV/AIDS funding. But Lee also warned that even with the passage of the bill, pressure should be put on President Bush to provide appropriate funding. “We shouldn’t be too quick to pat ourselves on the back,” she said. “We must urge the President and our colleagues on the appropriations committee to fully fund the $3 billion authorization, beginning this year. AIDS will not wait, and neither can we.”
Lee also insisted that the funding for the domestic AIDS crisis be increased. “Just under a million people are estimated to be infected here in the United States, and a quarter of those don’t even know that they are infected. 40,000 people are newly infected each year, yet we have flat funded our AIDS programs for the last few years. If this Congress and this Administration wants to stop this deadly disease, then we must attack it on a global and domestic basis.”
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Congresswoman Barbara Lee Praises Final Passage of AIDS Bill
Washington, DC – Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) today applauded the passage of H.R. 1298, the $15 billion U.S. Leadership against Global Aids, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003, by the U.S. House of Representatives. H.R. 1298, which Lee sponsored, is largely structured to provide a comprehensive and balanced approach to fighting the AIDS pandemic by supporting a variety of prevention methods, emphasizing care and treatment of infected individuals, funding vaccine research and development, and supporting the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. Unfortunately this balance was upset in the House floor debate, as social conservatives added an amendment to earmark 33% of all HIV/AIDS prevention spending for abstinence-only programs. The bill is also sponsored by Congressman Henry Hyde (R-IL), Congressman Tom Lantos (D-CA), Congressman Jim Leach (R-IA), and Congressman Dave Weldon (R-FL).The House had to approve the bill again after the Senate added an amendment that encouraged the Secretary of the Treasury to expand the Enhanced Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative to provide increased debt relief for countries ravaged by AIDS.
"I am pleased that the House has passed this truly historic legislation," said Lee, who has worked many years on both international and domestic HIV/AIDS funding. But Lee also warned that even with the passage of the bill, pressure should be put on President Bush to provide appropriate funding. “We shouldn’t be too quick to pat ourselves on the back,” she said. “We must urge the President and our colleagues on the appropriations committee to fully fund the $3 billion authorization, beginning this year. AIDS will not wait, and neither can we.”
Lee also insisted that the funding for the domestic AIDS crisis be increased. “Just under a million people are estimated to be infected here in the United States, and a quarter of those don’t even know that they are infected. 40,000 people are newly infected each year, yet we have flat funded our AIDS programs for the last few years. If this Congress and this Administration wants to stop this deadly disease, then we must attack it on a global and domestic basis.”
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