On September 30, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved, by voice vote, the PEPFAR Stewardship and Oversight Act (S. 1545).
The bill, sponsored by Chair Robert Menendez (D-NJ), would extend through 2018 the authorities for, and oversight of, the President’s Plan for Emergency AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) by the Departments of State and Health and Human Services and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
The legislation would extend through 2019 the requirement to report on per-patient costs for PEPFAR-supported treatment and care. U.S. participation in the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria would be authorized through 2018, but its contribution to the Global Fund would be capped at 33 percent.
According to a committee summary, the measure would modernize “the existing annual report on PEPFAR to better reflect the program’s movement away from strictly U.S. support and toward greater partner country ownership.” The bill would define partner countries as countries that receive at least $5 million annually in U.S. government HIV/AIDS assistance.
Funding to protect vulnerable children and orphans also would be extended through 2018.
