WORLD BANK AIDS MARSHALL PLAN TRUST FUND ACT -- (Extensions of Remarks - May 16, 2000)

[Page: E734]
---

SPEECH OF HON. SHEILA JACKSON-LEE

OF TEXAS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Monday, May 15, 2000

Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, thank you 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. Further, I was an original co-sponsor of AIDS Marshall Plan legislation authored by Congresswoman BARBARA LEE.

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 to create a trust fund administered by the World Bank to combat the AIDS epidemic is long overdue.

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 $100 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 tool throughout Africa and the Caribbean.

Unfortunately, the conference report does not include Senators 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 Organization 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 Senators FEINSTEIN and FEINGOLD's amendment, the White House still recognized the importance of access to drug therapies by issuing an Executive Order just

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' amendment, 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-Saharan 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 has 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 $100 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 lose 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 years.

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.
```
[Page: E735]
```

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.
END