Letter to Chair and Ranking Member of the House Committe on Appropriations Jerry Lewis and David Obey

Letter to Chair and Ranking Member of the House Committe on Appropriations Jerry Lewis and David Obey

May 4, 2006

The Honorable Jerry Lewis The Honorable David Obey
Chairman Ranking Member
House Committee on Appropriations House Committee on Appropriations
Room H-218, The Capitol 1016 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515 Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Chairman Lewis and Ranking Member Obey:

We are writing to thank you for your previous efforts to increase funding for global AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria programs, and to strongly urge you to continue these efforts by approving a Fiscal Year 2007 appropriation totaling $7.54 billion-of which 10 percent of AIDS funding should be dedicated to orphans and vulnerable children (OVC's), and at least $1.2 billion of all funds should go towards the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. We believe that this level of funding will make a significant difference in reducing the spread of these three diseases, and will help prevent the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in the coming year.

As you know, we are currently in the third funding year of the $15 billion Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief which was enacted on a bipartisan basis by a wide margin through The United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-25). This landmark piece of legislation recognizes the devastation that HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria are wreaking throughout much of the developing world, and makes the prevention, control, and cure of each disease a major objective of US foreign policy.

The recent second annual report by the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator points to a number of encouraging signs in the effort to scale up our foreign assistance programs to address HIV/AIDS, including support for 471,000 individuals on anti-retroviral treatment, and care services provided to over 1.2 million orphans and vulnerable children.

Yet, even against these encouraging signs of progress, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS estimates that 3 million people died of HIV/AIDS in 2005-570,000 of whom were children, while another 5 million people were newly infected-including 700,000 children. Clearly much more needs to be done to combat this devastating disease.

Following the passage last year of The Assistance for Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Developing Countries Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-95), and consistent with the requirements of the Leadership Act, we must do more this year to address the needs of children impacted by HIV/AIDS by providing at least 10 percent of all AIDS funding to OVC's in FY07, and ensure that we spend at least 15 percent of all AIDS treatment money on children.

At the same time, we can and should focus more effort on combating the global tuberculosis and malaria pandemics-the largest killers of people living with HIV/AIDS. As the primary vehicle for US foreign assistance efforts to combat TB and malaria, we must continue our strong support for the Global Fund. So far the Fund has approved $4.9 billion in funding to over 350 grants in 131 countries, and funded DOTS therapy for over 1 million TB cases, provided over 7.7 million insecticide treated bed nets to protect pregnant women and their children, and treated 1.1 million people for malaria. With further funding, the Global Fund can continue to make significant advances against these two diseases while complementing the work of the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria are killers. We can and should appropriate a minimum of $7.54 billion to fight them in the coming fiscal year. The longer we wait to ramp up our foreign assistance efforts, the greater the toll that these three diseases will take on human life and on the social, political and economic systems of vulnerable countries, and the greater the cost will be to the international community.

Sincerely,

Barbara Lee, M.C. Tom Lantos, M.C.

James A. Leach Corrine Brown, M.C.

Doris O. Matsui, M.C. Henry A. Waxman, M.C.

Tammy Baldwin, M.C. Diana DeGette, M.C.

George Miller, M.C. Jim McDermott, M.C.

Rush D. Holt, M.C. Tom Udall, M.C.

Sherrod Brown, M.C. Maxine Waters, M.C.

John Conyers Jr., M.C. James P. McGovern, M.C.

Jerrold Nadler, M.C. Michael M. Honda, M.C.

Robert Wexler, M.C. Raúl M. Grijalva, M.C.

Joseph Crowley, M.C. Dennis J. Kucinich, M.C.

Carolyn B. Maloney, M.C. Gregory W. Meeks, M.C.

Fortney Pete Stark, M.C. Eddie Bernice Johnson, M.C.

Chris Van Hollen, M.C. Lloyd Doggett, M.C.

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