Click here to download a PDF of the signed letter

For Immediate Release

December 16, 2009

Contact: Jennifer Flynn, Health GAP

+1-917-517-5202, jflynn@healthgap.org

or Matthew Kavanagh

+1 202-486-2488, matthew@healthgap.org

Five Congressional Chairmen Ask President Obama to Reach Global AIDS Promises

AIDS Activists Applaud Congressional Leadership

Washington, DC—Five Democratic leaders last night released a letter to President Barack Obama asking him to make good on the promises legislated last year to substantially increase Global AIDS funding. The five House Chairmen had joined then-Senators Obama, Biden, and Clinton in passing the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008.

“Despite the bipartisan and bicameral support behind Lantos-Hyde we will fail to meet its promise if the current funding trends continue over the next 3 years,” said the letter. “Without expanded funding beyond these 2-3 percent rate increases, it will be incredibly difficult to substantially expand access to treatment, roll out promising prevention programs, train new health workers, or care for the millions of orphans that the bill requires.”

The letter was signed by Chairwoman Barbara Lee of the Congressional Black Caucus, Chairman Henry Waxman of the Committee on Energy & Commerce, Chairman John Conyers of the Judiciary Committee, Chairman Donald Payne of the Subcommittee on Africa & Global Health, and Chairman Eliot Engel of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere.

“These members of Congress have worked hard for years to put the U.S. in a leadership role in the fight against AIDS,” said Matthew Kavanagh, Director of US Advocacy for HealthGAP. “Just as we are seeing the beginnings of success in AIDS treatment in Africa, the Caribbean, and other regions, flat-funding is threatening to halt progress of these life-saving programs. We are heartened that these congressional champions are standing up for the lives of people and the economic security of nations most in need.”

FULL TEXT OF THE LETTER:

December 15, 2009

President Barack Obama

The White House

Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Obama:

As Members of Congress who supported the reauthorization of our global AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria programs last year we write to encourage you to re-commit boldly to U.S. global leadership in the fight against these three pandemics. Having recently commemorated World AIDS Day, we are concerned about reports that continued rapid roll out of AIDS treatment is endangered in Africa.

A few weeks ago the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that AIDS is the number one killer of women between the ages of 15-49. AIDS remains among the biggest infectious killers the world has ever seen and infectious diseases remain by far the biggest killers of people living in developing countries. It was for these reasons that we joined with you last year to pass the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Act. This landmark bill authorized $48 billion over five years to deepen and expand our commitment to the fight against these three diseases.

Despite the bipartisan and bicameral support behind Lantos-Hyde we will fail to meet its promise if the current funding trends continue over the next 3 years. In fiscal year 2009 the U.S. provided $5.628 billion for bilateral AIDS programs and $1 billion for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in addition to NIH research funding. In fiscal year 2010 we will provide $5.828 billion for bilateral AIDS and $1.05 billion for the Global Fund. Without expanded funding beyond these 2-3 percent rate increases, it will be incredibly difficult to substantially expand access to treatment, roll out promising prevention programs, train new health workers, or care for the millions of orphans that the bill requires.

In order to get back on track with the authorization levels in Lantos-Hyde, we urge you to commit $7.5 billion for bilateral AIDS programs and $1.75 billion for the Global Fund in your fiscal year 2011 budget request. In addition, we ask you to include $650 million for bilateral TB programming and $924 million for malaria.

AIDS treatment expansion has been a huge success—with evidence it is saving millions of lives and driving down rates of child and maternal deaths. Yet as the group Doctors Without Borders has recently reported, programs are beginning to stop enrolling new patients when only about a third of those in immediate need of treatment under new WHO guidance have access to it[1]. We urge you to reverse this trend by re-committing the U.S. to do our part toward Universal Access to AIDS treatment and using your global leadership to call on national and donor governments to do the same.

One concrete step toward asserting the continued leadership of the United States would be to offer to host the next replenishment conference of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria next year. Hosting the replenishment conference would send a strong signal to the international community that the United States remains committed to ensuring the long term stability and success of the Global Fund and its partners.

Finally, the new mandate of PEPFAR under Lantos-Hyde was to be bolder and broader—to, among other things, strengthen health systems by training 140,000 new health workers. We believe in this goal and call on you to ensure that these health workers are truly additional, fully-trained health professionals.

We believe that taking these three actions will help ensure the United States continues to provide bold leadership in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the year to come. We thank you for considering our request and we look forward to working together with you and your Administration to reach our shared goals.

Sincerely,

Barbara Lee

Member of Congress

Henry A. Waxman

Chairman

Committee on Energy & Commerce

Donald M. Payne

Chairman

Subcommittee on Africa &Global Health

Eliot L. Engel

Chairman

Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere

John Conyers, Jr.

Chairman

Committee on the Judiciary

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