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

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

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, Members of the Senate, there are very few times when we have the opportunity to come to the floor when we know that the vote we will cast will save hundreds of thousands of lives.

The amendment we have before us will do that. I am very pleased that we have reached an agreement on the amendment that Senator Durbin and I have offered to provide an additional $289 million for the fight against global AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis.

Mr. President, this money will clearly save lives. Adopting this amendment is the right thing to do, and I want to thank so many of my colleagues for their support and their own efforts to fight the global AIDS epidemic.

First, I thank my colleague from Illinois, and the cosponsor of this amendment, Senator Durbin. Senator Durbin and I have traveled to Haiti. I have had the opportunity to watch Senator Durbin hold children who have HIV who are very sick. I have seen how compassionate he is, how much he cares.

This is the third time Senator Durbin and I have come to the floor and offered amendments to add additional funds to this fight against AIDS. I thank my colleague for his great work.

I thank my colleague, the majority leader, Senator BILL FRIST. No one knows more about this problem. No one has done more about this problem. Many of us had the opportunity, this past August, to go on a trip with Senator Frist to Africa. It was an educational trip for all of us.

BILL FRIST is a teacher. He is a doctor. He is a leader. He has done a great deal, and I salute him for his great work.

I also thank Senator RICK SANTORUM, who is a compassionate individual and who is passionate about this cause. It was RICK SANTORUM who first began working with the leadership and who first suggested, frankly, the formula that is in front of us today; he came up with these numbers. I salute him for his work.

I thank Senator MITCH MCCONNELL and Senator Leahy for bringing a very good bill to the floor. This bill will do a tremendous amount of good around the world.

It truly is an instrument of our foreign policy and also provides the resources to help save many, many lives around the world.

Finally, let me thank Senator TED STEVENS for his leadership in this area. We would not be on the floor tonight with this matter worked out without TED STEVENS' work. Let me say, for the Members of the Senate who do not already know this, this is not the first time that TED STEVENS has come forward and provided the necessary money to deal with the AIDS problem. This is, to my knowledge at least, the third time that I am personally aware of that Senator Stevens has done so. Ted Stevens is someone who is compassionate and who cares. I salute him and thank him.

I thank my colleagues for bringing us to this point. It is significant that today in Columbus, OH, the President of the United States at noon today spoke very eloquently about this problem. He has taken the lead in our efforts to deal with really one of the greatest tragedies of our era. He, once again, spoke about the problem of AIDS. More importantly, he spoke about our obligation and our duty. This is what he said in Ohio today:

We have duties in this world. When we see disease and starvation and hopeless poverty, America will not turn away. This great, mighty nation is leading the world in confronting a terrible disease on the continent of Africa. This nation is bringing the healing power of medicine to millions of men and women and children now suffering with AIDS. This great land is leading the world in this incredibly important work of human rescue.

I salute President George Bush for his vision and his leadership in this area.

I conclude by thanking everyone for their good work. This is the right thing to do. This will save lives. We will never know the people whose lives this amendment will save. We will not meet them. We will not see them. But we can rest assured, there will be many, many lives saved by what we do tonight.

I ask for the yeas and nays.