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The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. OSE). Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. JACKSON-LEE) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, earlier today, the House took up the tribute to honoring the Nation's law enforcement officers. I would just like to add my appreciation and recognition of those officers, some of whom lost their lives in my own home town of Houston, Texas. I think the resolution was one of a very important statement to acknowledge the heroes that we meet every day in law enforcement who act to keep our communities safe.
In addition, Mr. Speaker, the House addressed the question of world AIDS in H.R. 3519. I rise today to discuss this very important issue.
If we were to take a rollcall of the number of HIV/AIDS cases in sub-Saharan Africa, we would find the country of Botswana and the country of Zambia and the country of South Africa with numbers reaching up into 20 percent of the HIV infected adults in those particular countries.
When I traveled to Africa in the spring of 1999 on the first Presidential mission to the continent on the issue of HIV/AIDS to discover the number of children that will be orphaned by the year 2005, noting that some 40 percent of Africa's children could, in fact, be orphaned because of the devastation of AIDS. This legislation is long in coming.
I am a very proud co-sponsor of this legislation, and I want to salute the gentleman from Iowa (Chairman LEACH) and the gentleman from New York (Mr. LAFALCE), ranking member, and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. LEE), the cosponsor and the proponent and mover of this legislation. I am very happy to join her in this effort, and as well, to encourage my colleagues in the Senate and for us ultimately to have this bill before the President of the United States.
As I indicated to my colleagues, the numbers in Zimbabwe are 25.9 percent, Botswana 25.1 percent, Namibia 19.4 percent, and South Africa 12.9 percent. An even more heart-wrenching statistic is that 13 million children have lost one or both of their parents to AIDS. This number is projected to reach 40 million by 2010.
It is interesting to note the many roads we have traveled to try to fight this devastating disease. But the important point is to recognize that we must face this together. This legislation will provide $100 million for prevention and education. This legislation is a start.
We all remember the Marshall Plan that was utilized to rebuild a fallen Europe. There is no more important issue than to rebuild humanity. AIDS is moving its way from the continent of Africa to India to China. This is not a respecter of one's income, of one's background, of the continent that one might live on.
In fact, in Zimbabwe, the life expectancy is only 38.8 years and in Malawi, 34.8 years. We are facing this devastation everywhere we go.
When I traveled to Africa, I went in to visit some of the locales and villages where HIV-infected persons were, living in desolation, alone, and without family support because of the confusion of the disease.
When I visited these bedridden individuals, I saw so many of them suffering, not only from the devastation of AIDS, but they were suffering from tuberculosis. Sometimes they were left to be cared for by children as young as 4 and 6 years old, because other families had already died.
One woman that I spoke to had already lost six members of her family, was HIV-infected herself along with her son. The reason is because she nurtured her husband who died of this disease, and none of the family members would explain what was occurring to him. It is a question of whether they even knew. So of course, she contracted the disease subsequently as well.
I do want to acknowledge as well Congressman Dellums, who formerly was a colleague of ours whose brain child this legislation was. We thank him for his constant persistence and his work with all of us, including the Democratic Caucus, the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. GEPHARDT), the minority leader, the Congressional Black Caucus, all of whom have participated in visitations and in efforts to raise or heighten the sophistication and knowledge about this devastation.
When I was in Africa, I met with Ugandan first lady Janet Museveni, who was leading a campaign to help the orphans who had been victimized by HIV/AIDS, working with grandparents and providing support systems, some of whom have lost all their children, and they are caring for 10, 11, 12, 15 grandchildren.
It is important to recognize that there are things that we could do better in this bill. Frankly, I wish the Feingold and the Feinstein amendments could have been included dealing with prescription drugs.
I hope that, as we look to this bill in the future, even though the President, in his wisdom, ordered an executive order to take Senator FEINSTEIN's amendment and include it as an executive order, I believe that there is more that we could have done.
Let me also say, as I conclude, Mr. Speaker, that I was very gratified when we passed the African Growth and Opportunity Act, a legislation that I had an amendment to ask the private sector to involve themselves in fighting the devastation of AIDS was included.
Might I simply say that this is an important legislative initiative. I support it. I hope that we will see the efforts of this legislation helping to fight the devastation of AIDS.
I thank the Speaker for bringing this important piece of legislation to the Floor this week.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3519, the World Bank AIDS Marshall Plan Trust Fund Act.
I would like to thank Congressman LEACH for including the core provisions of BARBARA LEE's original bill, H.R. 2765, the AIDS Marshall Plan and Congressman Dellums for his public awareness regarding the importance of this bill.
This bill garners bipartisan support, including the Democratic Caucus and the CBC which both recognize the necessity of HIV/AIDS funding in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Mr. Speaker, I personally saw the devastation that the AIDS epidemic is causing in Africa during a visit with the President during March of 1999. During that trip, I visited places like St. Anthony's Compound in Zambia where grandparents were caring for grandchildren orphaned by AIDS.
In Uganda, the government showed the delegation the impact of AIDS as we met with a grandmother who was caring for 38 of her grandchildren because they were orphaned by her 11 children.
I also met with Ugandan First Lady Janet K. Museveni who is leading the campaign to help orphans as we discussed the fact that over 13 million children have been orphaned because of AIDS.
This trip emphasized to me the dire circumstances existing in Africa today and the obligation countries like the United States have to combat this disease.
The goal of this bill is to create a trust fund administered by the World Bank to combat the AIDS epidemic is long overdue.
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By directing the Secretary of Treasury to enter into negotiations with the World Bank and member nations, H.R. 3519 would serve as the impetus for an international response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
This bill would authorize the United States to contribute $200 million a year through fiscal year 2005 to this fund which would provide grants for prevention care programs and partnerships between local governments and the private sector that would lead to education, treatment, research, and affordable drugs.
Organizations like the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) would be recipients of these grants.
By providing grants to organizations like UNAIDS, this bill could help address the ``drug corruption'' in sub-Saharan Africa by requiring that only those countries that eliminate corruption are eligible for trust funds.
Just last week, this Congress passed the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act in which there is a structured framework for this country to use trade and investment as an economic development too throughout Africa and the Caribbean.
Unfortunately, the conference report does not include Senator Feinstein and Feingold's amendment that would have prohibited the Executive Branch from denying African countries to use legal means to improve access to HIV/AIDS pharmaceuticals for their citizens. This amendment would have clarified the African Growth and Opportunity Act so that African Governments, in accordance with the World Trade Organizations policies, could exercise flexibility in addressing public health concerns.
Thus, this amendment would simply allow countries to determine the availability of HIV/AIDS pharmaceuticals in their countries and provide their people with affordable HIV drugs.
Despite the failure of Senator Feinstein and Feingold's amendment, the White House still recognized the importance of access to drug therapies by issuing an Executive Order just last week Wednesday to provide access to HIV pharmaceuticals and medical technology.
This Executive Order incorporates the language of the Senator Feinstein-Feingold amendment and declares that the United States would not invoke a key clause in U.S. trade law against sub-Saharan African countries concerning the protection of patents on AIDS drugs. Like the Senators' amendments, the Executive Order would instead hold the African countries to the less stringent standard of the WTO on intellectual property protection.
Furthermore, I am pleased the House-Senate conference report includes amendments, which I offered during last year's consideration of the House bill.
The first provision encourages the development of small businesses in sub-Shararan Africa, including the promotion of trade between the small businesses in the United States and sub-Saharan Africa. This is an important victory for small business enterprises in America that are looking to expand remarkable trade opportunities in Africa.
It was once said, ``There is nothing more dangerous than to build a society, with a large segment of people in that society, who feel that they have no stake in it; who feel that they have nothing to lose. People who have a stake in their society, protect that society, but when they don't have it, they unconsciously want to destroy it.'' Although Martin Luther King was not speaking of AIDS, his comment rings true in so many aspects today.
The private sector must take responsibility for the eradication of this disease if these U.S. businesses are going to use African resources for their economic benefit.
Thus, I am pleased that an additional amendment I offered was incorporated into the conference report. This provision encourages U.S. businesses to provide assistance to sub-Saharan African nations to reduce the incidence of HIV/AIDS and consider the establishment of a Response Fund to coordinate such efforts.
This is important because HIV/AIDS have now been declared a national security threat. My provision reflects a national and international consensus that we must do everything we can to eliminate the HIV/AIDS disease.
Senior Clinton Administration officials clearly express their frustration that by all estimates on HIV/AIDS, that nearly $2 billion is needed to adequately prevent the spread of this disease in Africa per year.
Although, some say this may not be feasible at the moment, and the $200 million a year donation from the U.S. is not either,
we no longer can deny that this disease is an epidemic of enormous proportion that can no longer be ignored.
The very fact that the Clinton Administration formally recognized a month ago that the spread of HIV/AIDS in the world today is an international crisis by declaring HIV/AIDS to be a National Security threat is illustrative of the devastating effect of this disease.
It is estimated that 800,000 to 900,000 American are living with HIV and every year another 40,000 become infected. Although newer and effective therapies have led to reductions in the mortality rate of people with HIV/AIDS, the demographics of this epidemic have shifted. Thus, women, young people, and people of color represent an alarming portion of the new cases of HIV/AIDS.
Globally, more than 16 million have died from AIDS Since the 1980's, 80% of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
The creation of a WorldWide trust in which nations would be able to obtain grants to address the needs of HIV/AIDS victims globally is truly needed.
We know that 60% of those that have died from AIDS are in Sub-Saharan Africa.
An even more heart-wrenching statistic is that 13 million children have lost one or both of their parents to AIDS and this number is projected to reach 40 million by 2010.
AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for nearly half of all infectious disease deaths globally.
The percentage of the adult population infected with HIV or suffering from AIDS is alarming. To name a few: In Zimbabwe--25.9%; Botswana--25.1%; Namibia--19.4%; and South Africa--12.9%.
Additionally, in places like Namibia there has been a 44.5% drop in the life expectancy. Now adults in Namibia are only expected to live 38.9 year!
In Zimbabwe, the life expectancy is only 38.8 years and in Malawi, 34.8 years! Not since the bubonic plague of the Middle Ages, has there been a more devastating disease.
Yet, HIV/AIDS is 100% preventable. There is no reason for 2 million to die a year in Sub-Saharan Africa and 4 million to become infected.
The AIDS Marshall plan will help to ensure that the federal government commits to addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic over the next several years.
The survival of Africa is at stake! The United States can and should be the leader in generating a global response to this incredible contagion.
Now is the time to act and I urge my colleagues to support this measure in its entirety.
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