For Immediate Release: May 16 2003
Contact: Asia Russell, +1 267 475 2645

Bush Administration fights AIDS with smoke and mirrors on the lead up to the G8 Summit

Global AIDS bill passes Senate after Sen. Frist, Bush Administration strip bill of provisions for increased funds to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria

Senate passage of a five-year global AIDS bill authorizing up to $3 billion for FY 2004 received a mixed reaction from AIDS activists today. The bill has already passed in the House of Representatives.

Several Senators' efforts to increase allocations to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and malaria and to remove dangerous "abstinence-only" HIV prevention language coveted by religious extremists were stymied by Majority Leader Frist and by the Bush Administration.

"Go-it-alone Bush and a Stingy Senate Majority Leader should be ashamed of themselves. They worked overtime to prevent passage of amendments that would have helped stop the financial melt-down at the Global AIDS Fund," said Asia Russell of Health GAP.

Activists point to Sen. Durbin's (D-Ill.) amendment, which garnered 48 votes, would have strengthened weak discretionary language in the original House bill on funding levels for the Global Fund, setting a funding "floor" of $500 million for that program in FY 2004. The amendment would have also established a "matching grant" where U.S. contributions would leverage grants from other donors at a rate of 3-to-1. Total contributions of $2 billion from other donors would have increased the U.S. share to $1 billion for 2004. Sen. Frist aggressively opposed this amendment.

"The President will get to pat himself on the back for this bill at the G8 Summit in two weeks in Evian," said Sharonann Lynch of Health GAP. "But good PR won't win a war on global AIDS.

"This bill contains no assurance that the Congress will actually appropriate $3 billion for 2004," continued Lynch. "And the Administration is actively opposing spending $1 billion in 2004 on the best proven mechanism we have for fighting AIDS--the Global Fund. How will Bush meet his own clinical targets for 2008 of treating 2 million people when he is sabotaging the best multilateral program we have for saving lives?"

"Heading to the G8 Summit, Bush continues to starve the Global Fund -- the only vehicle already operating that could truly provide an emergency plan for AIDS relief, and he is doing so at a time of urgent fiscal paralysis at the Fund," said Paul Davis of Health GAP.

"Sen. Frist abandoned the principled positions he held as recently as last December," continued Davis. "The Doctor is playing politics with the only vehicle that can save lives now by making support for the Global Fund a partisan issue."

Religious conservatives and unnamed White House officials have criticized the Global Fund as being unaccountable to taxpayers; however, the U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson directs the Global Fund's Board, and the Fund is subjected to regular audits by the General Accounting Office.

The Global Fund is facing a nearly complete budget shortfall this year due to underfunding from the U.S. and other donors. The Bush Administration plans to commit only $200 million to the Global Fund in 2004. The House International Relations Committee has acknowledged that the U.S.'s fair share of Global Fund contributions are 33% of projected need. With $350 million contributed so far and $200 million more in the FY04 budget, at least $1.7 billion from the United States is still owed by 2004.

A Government Accounting Office (GAO) report released 7 May 2003 describes the new Global Fund as having made significant progress. The primary obstacle identified by the auditors was lack of money. "The U.S. and other G7 donors have refused to contribute their fair share to this multilateral fund," said Kris Hermes of Health GAP.

Worldwide, untreated AIDS kills 8500 people daily. By 2010 as many as 100 million people will be infected worldwide with HIV; currently 40 million are infected, with more than 29 million people living with HIV in Africa alone.

The activists applauded Senators Santorum and Biden for sticking to their guns long enough to compel Frist to include a weakened amendment on debt relief for impoverished nations. Health GAP calls on Congress and Bush Administration to fully fund every penny of the bill, and to provide faster debt cancellation for poor countries.

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