Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2004

FOREIGN OPERATIONS, EXPORT FINANCING, AND RELATED PROGRAMS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2004

AMENDMENT NO. 1966

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.

The legislative clerk read as follows:

The Senator from Ohio [Mr. DeWine], for himself, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Coleman, Mr. Warner, Mr. Daschle, Mr. Leahy, and
Mr. Graham of South Carolina, proposes an amendment numbered 1966.

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that further reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

The amendment is as follows:

(Purpose: To increase asistance to combat HIV/AIDS)

Insert where appropriate:

GLOBAL AIDS ASSISTANCE

SEC.—.For an additional amount for "Global AIDS Initiative", $289,000,000, to remain available until September 30, 2006, for programs for the prevention, treatment, and control of, and research on, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, which may include additional contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I rise this morning, along with my friends and colleagues, Senators DURBIN, COLEMAN, WARNER, DASCHLE, LEAHY, and GRAHAM of South Carolina, to offer an amendment that would increase this bill's current funding level for the global AIDS initiative by $289 million. This additional funding would bring the total fiscal year 2004 allocation to $2.4 billion. This $2.4 billion would allow us to meet our goal of providing at least $2 billion in bilateral aid, and it would also allow us to meet our current matching commitment to the Global Fund. This money in this amendment would be distributed by the new AIDS coordinator, Randall Tobias, for the prevention, treatment, control of, and research on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.

Mr. President, this clearly is the right thing to do. It is the right thing to do because AIDS is wiping out entire communities and, yes, we can truly say that AIDS has the potential to wipe out entire countries. It is the right thing to do because at least 8,000 people every single day—mothers, fathers, children, babies—are dying. And millions of others who are not on treatment, drugs, are suffering the painful effects of this disease.

It is the right thing to do because we, thank heavens, because of great medical science and research, now have the ability and the resources to fight HIV/AIDS. We need to do it, we cannot delay, and we must act.

We should be judged not just by what we do in society; I believe we should also be judged by what we don't do. We should
be judged by what we are willing to tolerate. I say to my friends and colleagues in the Senate that we cannot tolerate inaction; we cannot, as a good and moral society, as a moral people, tolerate inaction. We, who have the ability to do something about this horrible crisis in the world today, must act.

With this amendment, we will be able to do so much good. So I say to my colleagues that we should not and we must not tolerate a world where so many people are suffering from HIV/AIDS. We must not tolerate a world where the suffering and dying occurs and we have the ability and the tools to help make a difference and to save lives.

As we have discussed on the Senate floor before—and so many of my colleagues have talked about it—time is not on our side. People worldwide are dying this very moment. I have seen firsthand the devastation of HIV/AIDS. I know my colleague in the chair has, and I know so many of my other colleagues have as well.

My wife Fran and I have traveled to a number of the 14 countries that President Bush has named to be the primary recipients of the global HIV/AIDS fund money. I know many of my colleagues, such as majority leader Bill Frist, Senators
DURBIN, CHAFEE, COLEMAN, ENZI, NELSON, WARNER, ALEXANDER, and so many others, have also witnessed firsthand the effects of AIDS in these nations. I have seen it in Haiti many times. I have also seen it in Guyana,
Mozambique, Botswana, South Africa, Namibia. I have held in my arms babies who were dying of the disease. I have met mothers who have lost their children through AIDS, and I have met children who have lost their parents to AIDS. When you do this, as other Members know, you then can put a face on it. It is no longer just statistics; it is real people.
When you come back home from those trips, you continue to see in your mind's eye those faces, and you see those children, and some of those children, after you get back home, in a few days or weeks are no longer on this Earth. When you put a face on it and you put names to this disease, the moral imperative in fighting it becomes very clear.

There are things we can do right now, at this very moment, to fight HIV/AIDS. Fighting this global AIDS crisis cannot be business as usual, and it cannot be bureaucracy as usual. We cannot treat this crisis the same way we have other problems.
This is an emergency.

Truly, if there is anything that comes before us today on the Senate floor, this is an emergency. We don't have the luxury of time, as President Bush has said so eloquently. For each moment we delay, people die, and they die every moment.

In our travels, Fran and I have seen groups, organizations, and individuals who are ready now to receive our money and our assistance, and that is the good news for us. There are people out there ready to go to work and who are working now—organizations, doctors, and nurses who have the ability to take the resources we can give them and get the job done.
They are ready to go into action to deal with the HIV/AIDS problem. It is heartwarming to see them and talk with them because they are already doing such good work. They have proven track records. They are ready to go, and we just need to get them the money and allow them to get about the business of saving lives.

As we do fight this disease, we cannot be timid. We cannot be afraid of failure. We need to take some chances. In doing so, the reality is that there are going to be some mistakes made. This is a very big undertaking. No one has ever tried to do what we are doing in the world. The truth is, the world has not faced such a crisis. We probably have to go back in history to the bubonic plague or something in the Medieval period to see the world face such a medical crisis. The good news is, unlike those times, we have the ability to do something about it.

There will be some failures and there will be some foul-ups, but the fear of failure must not hold us back. We must move forward because lives are at stake.

There are several actions we can take now because we know they work. We talked about this on the Senate floor, but it is such a wonderful issue to talk about and such a wonderful thing to see in action, as I know the Chair and other Members have. We have the ability today to provide an HIV-positive pregnant woman with the care and drugs to ensure that she will not give birth to a child who is also HIV positive.

The statistics are very simple, the facts are very simple, and the remedy is so simple. If a woman today is pregnant and she is HIV positive, the odds are 30 percent she will give birth to a child who is HIV positive. In sub-Saharan Africa or in Haiti or in Guyana, there are programs today that will reduce those odds from 30 percent to 10 percent or as low as 5 percent or 4 percent. They can do that for as little as $3 or $4. I am not saying $3 or $4 a day, I am talking about the total cost of $3 or $4. That is phenomenal. For as little as $3 or $4 and for a little treatment and a little expertise and getting that mother in for treatment, we can save a child from being born HIV positive. We can save a child from being condemned to die a very tough and horrible death. We can do it. It is a miracle. So we must act.

These are some of the simple activities we can do, and do now, so long as the resources are available. This amendment will mean more people can be saved. It is as simple as that. More people will be saved by this amendment. In targeting health investments to fight HIV/AIDS, we can save lives. It is that simple. This amendment is an appropriate step, and I ask my colleagues for their support.

We will have the opportunity next week to further debate this amendment. As I conclude, I wish to thank all the cosponsors of this amendment. I thank Senator BILL FRIST who led our trip to Africa in August, which I think helped all of us fully understand not only the gravity of this crisis, but also it helped open our eyes to how many groups are out
there, how many doctors are out there who have the ability to deliver the services and with whom we can work in the months ahead.

Yes, it is going to be tough. Yes, it is going to be difficult. We know the problems. We saw those problems. But it also showed us good people are out there, organizations are out there, and it showed us there is a path to get this work done.
I thank Majority Leader Frist for taking a number of Senators with him to Africa and helping educate all of us. In this work against AIDS, he is a medical doctor who truly understands this disease.

I also thank Senator Rick Santorum. Senator Santorum has been a true advocate of trying to increase the dollars we are spending on this AIDS initiative. It was his idea to come up with these dollar figures, to increase this bilateral support. He worked these numbers and worked these numbers. He and I have talked now for the last month, going back and forth. I thank him for his commitment, for his passion, and his work in this area. We would not be where we are today without Senator RICK SANTORUM.

Finally, I thank my colleague, Senator DICK DURBIN, who could not be on the Senate floor today but who will be back
Monday. I talked with him just a few moments ago by phone. He is someone who cares very passionately. Senator Durbin and I have offered two other amendments on the Senate floor in the past, both of which we have been able to adopt, and we have seen them make a difference.

I traveled with Senator Durbin to Haiti. We worked on these problems in the past. He also cares passionately about this issue. He is someone who is very results oriented and someone who has made a difference in this field. I thank Senator Durbin for his commitment to the children and his commitment to this issue.

I conclude by thanking my colleagues, Senator McConnell and Senator Leahy, for bringing a very good bill to the floor. This is a bill that a lot of people do not pay attention to, but it is a bill that does a tremendous amount of good around the world.
It is an instrument of foreign policy, which is very important, but it is also a bill that saves lives every year, and it is a bill that spends U.S. money well to help our commitment to the children of the world, as well as making sure the United States is well represented around the world. I thank Senator McConnell and Senator Leahy for working in a bipartisan way to bring this bill to the Senate floor.

We will be back in the Chamber next week to talk further about this amendment. I thank my colleague from Kentucky.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.