Biden's Remarks on HIV/AIDS Bill

Floor Statement: Sen. Joe Biden's remarks on HIV/AIDS Bill

Mr. President it is with mixed emotions that I come before you to debate H.R. 1298, the United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Act of 2003. HIV/AIDS is the worst plague that mankind has ever known. It is a source of instability, economic regression, and humanitarian disaster now and will be for the foreseeable future. That is why the Senate passed a bill to address the issue last July. That is why the Foreign Relations Committee has been attempting to mark-up a bill since January.

So on the one hand I am glad that the White House and the Majority leader have finally seen fit to allow some action on a piece of legislation. On the other hand, I think the one under consideration is seriously flawed.

The bill before you was passed by the House with, I am sure, the best of intentions. It does not, however, as the title suggests, provide leadership. Quite the opposite, in fact. To say that there is room for improvement in the House passed bill would be a gross understatement.

Don't get me wrong. The bill under consideration acknowledges the severity of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and authorizes money over a five year period to address it. Fifteen billion dollars over five years, to be exact. That's a heck of a lot of money. So what is wrong with that?

Several things. First, the bill holds the amount that we are dedicating to the fight static over a considerable time period. No one can predict what the extent of the spread of HIV will be over five years, but projections, including those from the Central Intelligence Agency, indicate that the plague is getting worse, not better. We have no earthly idea of what will be needed to fight the disease three, four or five years from now. To put ourselves in a funding straightjacket for the next five years is absurd.

In addition, H.R. 1298 gives no guidance to the President about how to spend $15 billion dollars. Other than a soft earmark to limit our contribution to the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria, it is silent on how we in Congress believe money should be spent on HIV/AIDS.

It gives no indication about the amount of our contributions to the Global Fund should be for four of the five years the bill covers. I believe that Congress' voice should be heard on this issue and there will be a Democratic amendment authorizing a responsible contribution. I am sure that some of my Republican colleagues will argue that we have plenty of time to fix funding problems later. Considering our inability to conference a bill last year, I wouldn't count on it.

This is a complete abdication of Congressional responsibility. It's like giving a contractor money to build a house without telling him or her what you want the house to look like. Who would do something that unwise? The House-passed bill does not deal with the issue of debt relief for countries suffering the burden of an AIDS epidemic. Last year the Senate unanimously passed a bill which included a title extending increased debt relief to countries with a severe public health crisis such as AIDS. Unless our commitment to helping these countries cope with the cost of preventing the spread of and treating people suffering from HIV/AIDS has faltered since last July, we should do no less this year.

Moreover, the bill contains language which I think is bad policy. There is a hard earmark for abstinence only programs which is impractical. I believe that the Agency for International Development and other relevant agencies who are working on the ground are competent to decide how much money to spend on abstinence only programs based on conditions in the communities in which they are working. We cannot assign arbitrary percentages to one small element of a comprehensive strategy to prevent the spread of AIDS without a rationale. How did House members come to the conclusion that 33% was appropriate? I do not know.

Finally, the bill does not make it clear that funds to fight HIV/AIDS are to be provided over and above what we are doing on in our ordinary

There are other problems with the bill. Some are more serious than others. It is my intention to try to fix them in an expeditious way so that we can pass the bill and go to conference as quickly as possible.

I yield the floor.