Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report Summarizes Opinion Pieces on Congressional Appropriations for Global AIDS Bill
Two opinion pieces and an editorial this week focused on the funding levels currently being discussed by congressional appropriations committees for the five-year, $15 billion global AIDS bill (HR 1298). The House Appropriations Committee is considering $1.77 billion in cuts to the foreign aid portion of the fiscal year 2004 budget, which could affect funding for the initiative, which President Bush signed into law last month. The bill authorizes $3 billion a year for five years to international HIV/AIDS programs, with up to $1 billion in FY 2004 going to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 6/19). The following are summaries of the editorial and opinion pieces:
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: "If you are going to make promises to desperate people, it's only right to deliver," a Post-Intelligencer editorial says. Congress must therefore appropriate the money promised in the global AIDS bill, the editorial says. On Bush's visit to Africa next month, "There would be no better signal to the world -- and to the importance of [the AIDS] issue -- than getting the programs in gear and letting the president pack along a real financial commitment," the editorial concludes (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 6/26).
Katie Finn, Iowa City Press-Citizen: The United States must keep the promise made in the global AIDS bill and "put our money where our mouth is" during the appropriations process, Katie Finn, a representative of the University of Iowa's chapter of the Student Global AIDS Campaign, writes in a Press-Citizen opinion piece. Iowa farmers should "be astounded by the situation facing many of their African counterparts" who have died of AIDS-related diseases, making apparent the "terrible nexus between AIDS and the recent famine in southern Africa," she says. Finn concludes that Iowans should pressure Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) to vote to "fully fun[d] at least the $3 billion" suggested in the global AIDS bill for fiscal year 2004 (Finn, Iowa City Press-Citizen, 6/25).
Micah Sucherman, Colorado Daily: While the authorization of funding in the global AIDS bill was an "unprecedented step forward, ... it is becoming disturbingly clear that the goals and intent of the bill were little more than rhetoric," Sucherman, media coordinator of the Student Global AIDS Campaign, writes in a Colorado Daily opinion piece. Instead of appropriating proper funding levels to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria -- which is "the most effective tool that we have in this stage of the fight against AIDS" -- Congress and the Bush administration seem willing to "wait for two years while the American version of the Global Fund becomes functional," Sucherman says, concluding that the world "cannot afford to wait for two years ... as six million more die and the infection begins to take over India and Southeast Asia" (Sucherman, Colorado Daily, 6/26).
This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.