Lee Leads Bipartisan Effort to Protect Almost $ 1 Billion in AIDS Funds
(Washington, DC) – Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) and Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) are leading a bipartisan, bicameral effort to prevent the passage of a Continuing Resolution to fund the government at last year’s level from eliminating almost $1 billion to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS.
“We have done tremendous work building momentum behind our global HIV/AIDS programs and we really cannot afford to lose ground,” said Lee. “The difference between adopting the Senate levels and allowing the funding to be cut will be measured in lost human lives.”
Today, Lee and U.S Representative Chris Shays (R-CT) sent a letter signed by 87 of their colleagues to U.S. Representatives David Obey (D-WI) and Jerry Lewis, the Chairman and Ranking Member, respectively, of the House Appropriations Committee, asking them to adopt Senate funding levels for programs to fight HIV/AIDS. Durbin and Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) sent a similar letter, signed by 36 of their colleagues, to Senators Robert Byrd (D-WV) and Thad Cochran (D-MS), Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
In 2006, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved $4.36 billion for Fiscal Year 2007 for U.S. funding for international HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria programs. Simply continuing the Fiscal Year 2006 funding would provide only $3.43 billion.
According to the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator, if additional funds are not received, at the current rate of scale-up it is likely that at least 350,000 people would not receive treatment from the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) over the remaining 7 months of the fiscal year and an estimated 110,000 to 175,000 people would die.
Level funding would mean a loss of $700 million for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS Tuberculosis and Malaria, and $234 million for the President’s Malaria Initiative. According to the Global Fund, every $100 million can provide 370,000 HIV tests or treatment for 11,000 people with AIDS, 80,000 people with TB or 150,000 people with malaria.
According to recent estimates, 39.5 million people are now living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. Last year, nearly 3 million people died of AIDS-related causes, and 4.3 million people were infected with HIV.
Last December the President announced that as of the end of September, 2006, 1.2 million people were receiving antiretroviral therapy through the combined work of the Global Fund and PEPFAR. According to the World Health Organization 6.8 million people need antiretroviral therapy now.
Lee was a coauthor of the bipartisan legislation that established PEPFAR, 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.
###
Text of the letter follows:
January 11, 2007
The Honorable David R. Obey The Honorable Jerry Lewis
Chairman Ranking Member
House Committee on Appropriations House Committee on Appropriations
Washington D.C. 20515 Washington D.C. 20515
Dear Chairman Obey and Ranking Member Lewis:
We know that the decision to seek a Continuing Resolution to address the nine unfinished fiscal year 2007 appropriations bills, including the Foreign Operations Appropriations bill was not easy to reach. We appreciate your acknowledgement that some programs might need a funding adjustment to avoid serious adverse consequences. We strongly urge you to consider an adjustment to ensure our nation’s continued commitment to the global fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. A straightforward continuing resolution at fiscal year 2006 levels will cost lives and will undercut the momentum we have been building in our fight against these diseases through both bilateral and multilateral programs.
We appreciate the support you have given to the global AIDS fight over the last several years. For fiscal year 2006, Congress appropriated $3.43 billion for Global HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. If we were simply to level fund those amounts, we would be unable to begin to respond to the 4.3 million new HIV infections this past year. Level funding would eliminate the opportunity to extend anti-retroviral treatment (ART) through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to an estimated 350,000 people in urgent need. Together PEPFAR and the multilateral Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria have been adding an additional 50,000 people a month to the ART rosters. Level funding would be inadequate to cover everyone added through the end of fiscal year 2006 while still maintaining other priorities. It would be unconscionable to cut those recipients off from this life-sustaining treatment. However, without additional resources, our programs would be forced to cut back on prevention and care programs in order to sustain existing treatment efforts.
Another way to measure the effect of level funding is that for every $100 million taken away, the Global Fund will not be able to:
· Purchase 630,000 bed nets to fight malaria;
· Provide 150,000 treatments for malaria;
· Provide 370,000 HIV tests;
· Provide 11,000 people with AIDS treatment; and
· Purchase 80,000 treatments for TB.
Even providing additional funds for fiscal year 2008 would not allow our programs to regain lost momentum or regain lost confidence from governments and communities. Nor of course would lost lives be recovered.
The rapid spread of extremely drug resistant tuberculosis and its potential impact on HIV, as well as the recently expanded scope of the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) highlight the urgent need for increased tuberculosis and malaria funding both through our bilateral programs and the Global Fund.
Building on the work of the House, the Senate Appropriations Committee proposed $4.36 billion for Fiscal Year 2007 for U.S. funding for international HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria programs—including $700 million for the Global Fund, and $234 million for PMI. We recognize that there are many priorities competing for special attention in the Continuing Resolution, but few have more lives directly at stake: according to estimates from the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator, an estimated 110,000 to 175,000 people would die because of the year long CR. We urge you to sustain, at a minimum, the levels of funding for global AIDS that were passed by the Senate Appropriations Committee earlier this year in the Foreign Operations and Labor-HHS appropriations bills, without cutting other core humanitarian and development programs.
Thank you for your careful consideration of this critical matter.
Sincerely,
U.S. Representatives Barbara Lee (D-CA), Chris Shays (R-CT), Tom Lantos (D-CA), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Jim McDermott (D-WA), Thaddeus McCotter(R-MI), Donald Payne (D-NJ), John Carter (R-TX) , Corrine Brown (D-FL) , Elijiah Cummings (D-MD), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Donna Christensen (D-VI), Michael Michaud (D-ME), William Jefferson (D-LA) , Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-CA), Chaka Fattah (D-PA) , Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), Rush Holt (D-NJ), Rick Larsen (D-WA), Al Green (D-TX) , Henry Waxman (D-CA), Robert Wexler (D-FL) , Maxine Waters (D-CA), Kendrick