Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2006
FOREIGN OPERATIONS, EXPORT FINANCING, AND RELATED PROGRAMS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006 -- (House of Representatives - June 28, 2005)
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Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.
Mr. Chairman, I rise to ask the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Kolbe) to engage with me in a colloquy. And I take this opportunity to thank the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Lowey) for all of the fine work that she has done on this appropriation. And I would like to thank the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Kolbe) for the concern and care that he has shown for Africa and on this issue of HIV/AIDS over the years. And I do appreciate it.
But I rise today to talk about the fact that back in 2003, January 2003, the President made a commitment. If you recall in his State of the Union address, he said he was going to provide $15 billion over 5 years. That is $3 billion a year for global HIV/AIDS programs.
In the past year, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or as it became known as PEPFAR, has been underfunded significantly. I do appreciate the work that you have done. But in fiscal year 2003, we only received $1.6 billion for global HIV/AIDS programs.
In fiscal year 2004, only $2.3 billion was provided for those programs. We have done better in 2005, receiving $2.9 billion.
So the total funding for the last 3 years is only $6.8 billion. Congress would have to appropriate $8.2 billion over the next 2 years to complete the commitment for $15 billion for the 5-year commitment.
Why do I push this? I push this because every year 3 million people die of AIDS. Every year 5 million people become infected with AIDS. Over 25 million are living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa and over 7 percent of the adults in sub-Saharan Africa are infected by this deadly virus.
So while I thank you, I guess the question I am asking is can we do more and can we even save this funding that is in the budget, given that one of your Members, the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King) is talking about cutting it?
Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, will the gentlewoman yield?
Ms. WATERS. I yield to the gentleman from Arizona.
Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman for her comments and for her kind remarks about my support for HIV/AIDS funding. It is a commitment that I share with the gentlewoman from California. I believe very strongly in the importance of this. In fact, when I became chairman of this subcommittee, I said there were three primary things that I wanted to do, and this was one of them.
I think the gentlewoman is forgetting something, and that is there is funding in another appropriation bill for international AIDS, largely in CDC and NIH, in the Labor-HHS bill. When you add those amounts in, this year, we are at $3.2 billion total funding for HIV/AIDS and international programs, so we are above. If you take the $15 billion over 5 years that the President talked about, $3 billion would be a level funding. We started off below that. This year in the third year we are above it. We are not only on target to meet the $15 billion; we will be above that by the end of the fifth year. So we are moving clearly in that direction. And I believe that we are showing our commitment.
We are $131 million this year above the amount requested by the President. We are $502 million above the amount that was appropriated in 2005. That is just in our particular appropriation bill.
So I do share the gentlewoman's concerns about this, and I believe, however, that we are moving very strongly in that direction. And perhaps the gentlewoman from New York would like to add something.
Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, reclaiming my time, I was referring to the PEPFAR portion of this. It was my understanding that the $15 billion commitment was above and beyond the other programs that you are alluding to. But I do appreciate that.
Mr. KOLBE. If the gentlewoman would yield just for one clarification, I think the gentlewoman is mistaken on that. The $15 billion was a total for all HIV/AIDS programs, not just the PEPFAR's program. So when you look at all the programs that were already under way in bilateral programs, things being done in NIH and CDC as well as in the new PEPFAR program, the global fund, all of that, we will be well above, I think we will be considerably above the $15 billion.
Ms. WATERS. Well, I understand that and I appreciate the gentleman correcting my thinking relative to where the money was to come from, because in the AIDS activist community, we were all under the impression that the PEPFAR fund alone would produce the $15 billion. But we will certainly take that information.
Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.
The CHAIRMAN. Without objection, the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Kolbe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
There was no objection.
Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, continuing this colloquy, just so you have the numbers correct here as we see them here: in 2004, total appropriations for international AIDS programs was $2.4 billion. In 2005 it was $2.9 billion; and in 2006, the current year that we are funding, it is $3.2 billion. That gives you a total of $8.5 billion which means that we have $6.5 billion left to do in the next 2 years in order to reach the $15 billion. That would be slightly less, actually, than $3 billion a year to meet that. So I do believe we are on target.
Mr. Chairman, I yield to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Lowey).
Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman and I want to thank the gentlewoman for her commitment to combating the HIV/AIDS pandemic. She has been a strong and constant voice championing the cause of the poorest, and I agree with my colleague from California that more needs to be done to help address the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
The gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Kolbe) discussed the funding in the bill. However, we all agree, and I know the chairman agrees, that more needs to be done. And the U.N. has estimated the total resources needed to combat HIV/AIDS around the world to be $15 billion per year. An additional $5 billion is needed to combat TB and malaria. And while I do not believe that the United States can or should fulfill all of the need on our own, the amount that we are currently contributing, about 15 percent of the total need, is not representative of what we are capable of doing.
So although the Chair has mentioned, and I would agree that we have done as much as we possibly can in this bill, I would like to work with him, you, and certainly with the Chair to make sure that we continue to increase our commitment to HIV/AIDS. I thank the gentlewoman for entering into this colloquy.
Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. KOLBE. I yield to the gentlewoman from California.
Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the gentleman for his commitment. The gentleman has demonstrated his commitment to this issue as much as anyone, more than most in the Congress of the United States. And I am going to review the numbers and take his representation of how that funding has come together and have further discussions with the AIDS community. They are so concerned because since the President's commitment, over 7 million people have died. And also we will have an amendment coming up today from the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King), and although I do not want to preempt the gentleman's presentation, I would hope the gentleman would join me in helping to put that down because that would undermine all the work that he has done.
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