On July 26, the Senate approved, by unanimous consent, an amended version of legislation (H.R. 3519) to combat HIV/AIDS in Africa and worldwide. The House then approved the Senate amendment by voice vote on July 27, clearing the bill for the President’s signature.
Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC), a sponsor of the Senate amendment, urged support for the package: “The HIV/AIDS epidemic is not only an unparalleled public health problem affecting large parts of sub-Saharan Africa, it is an unprecedented threat to the region’s development. In many countries, the disease is reversing decades of hard-won development progress. We cannot ignore these facts. The time to act is now.”
Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN), also a sponsor of the Senate version, added: “Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in which women are infected with HIV at a higher rate than men. According to UNAIDS, women make up an estimated 55 percent of the HIV-positive adult population in sub-Saharan Africa, as compared with 35 percent in the Caribbean, the next highest-ranking region, and 20 percent in North America. Young women are particularly at risk. A U.N. study found girls aged 15-19 to be infected at a rate of 15 percent to 23 percent, while infection rates among boys of the same age were 3 percent to 4 percent.”
The Senate amendment incorporated provisions of S. 2845, the Global AIDS and Tuberculosis Relief Act, approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on June 27 (see The Source, 6/30/00). The final bill includes $150 million for an HIV/AIDS trust fund at the World Bank in FY2001 and 2002; the original House bill would have provided $100 million annually over five years. Of that total, $50 million is authorized only for programs that benefit orphans.
For each of FY2001 and 2002, the final version also authorizes $60 million for tuberculosis prevention and treatment, $50 million for the Global Alliance for Vaccines Initiative, $10 million for the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, and $300 million for HIV/AIDS prevention programs at USAID. Under the bill, not less than 65 percent of USAID’s HIV/AIDS funding must be allocated to nongovernmental organizations, not less than 20 percent must be spent to support orphans, and not less than 8.3 percent must be allocated for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission.
