Howard Berman

Mr. BERMAN

Mr. BERMAN. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BERMAN. I yield such time as she may consume to the author of the resolution, the gentlelady from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky).

Mr. BERMAN

Mr. BERMAN. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield to the Speaker of the House, who came up with the idea for having this resolution at this particular time, our Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, for 1 minute.

Mr. BERMAN. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the resolution under consideration.

Mr. BERMAN

Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 1008) condemning the persecution of Baha'is in Iran, as amended.

Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BERMAN

Mr. BERMAN. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Chicago (Ms. Schakowsky).

Mr. BERMAN. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pascrell).

Mr. BERMAN. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 1266) congratulating Albania and Croatia on being invited to begin accession talks with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and expressing support for continuing to enlarge the alliance, as amended.

Mr. BERMAN

Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and so I will reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BERMAN. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the resolution under consideration.

Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I want to acknowledge the contribution not only of Mr. Chabot in offering this resolution but of our colleague Mr. Capuano, the gentleman from Massachusetts, whose own resolution, a great deal of the language in that was incorporated into this resolution. And it is truly a collaborative effort, and I wanted to thank him as well. I have no further speakers at this time, and so I reserve the balance of our time.

Mr. BERMAN

Mr. BERMAN. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. BERMAN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. The legislation before the House today extends certain expiring authorities of the Department of State. A couple of examples. The bill continues the Department's ability to hire experienced retired officer to fill positions in Iraq or Afghanistan. This bill extends two broadcasting authorities, Radio Free Asia for an additional year and the authority to hire personal service contractors in the United States for specialized language and other skills, and several other technical provisions involving those authorities. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BERMAN

Mr. BERMAN. I yield myself 30 seconds. Mr. Speaker, without joining issue with the gentleman on his other comments, the suggestion that this is not curing AIDS is directly contrary to the evidence I saw firsthand in Africa earlier this month. There are huge numbers of people there who would now be dead, who are alive simply because of the drugs that this money allowed them to get. I don't know what the definition of the gentleman's cure is, but they are living normal, active lives as a result of the drug therapies. I insert a Statement of Legislative Intent regarding nutrition into the Record at this time. On behalf of Chairman Payne, Mr. McGovern, and Mrs. Emerson, I would like to make the following statement regarding the intent of the House on H.R. 5501. H.R. 5501 and the Senate amendment to H.R. 5501 provide clear and specific instructions to the USAID Administrator and the Global AIDS Coordinator to address the food and nutrition needs of individuals with HIV/AIDS and other affected individuals, including orphans and vulnerable children; and to fully integrate food and nutrition support in HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and care programs carried out under this act. We are concerned about the negative effect rising costs are having on our long-term and emergency food aid programs. This is a matter that affects a wide array of our food aid and development programs, including the effectiveness and success of our Global HIV/AIDS programs. On behalf of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and members who have been very involved in international nutrition, we wish to state that it is the legislative intent of H.R. 5501 and the Senate amendment to H.R. 5501 that food security and nutrition programs, especially those referred to as wrap-around services, are not to be funded with monies diverted from other standing commitments to address food insecurity elsewhere in the world or in these countries. I'm very pleased to yield 5 minutes to my friend, just a major architect of this whole program, the gentlelady from California (Ms. Lee).

Mr. BERMAN. I am pleased to yield the gentlelady an additional minute.

Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I am now very pleased to yield 5 minutes to the gentleman I referenced earlier, the chairman of the Africa Subcommittee, Mr. Payne of New Jersey.

Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the remaining time. The bill has been described, and its consequences have been discussed. But I can't help but come back to the comments from my friend from California (Mr. Rohrabacher) with respect to the effects of this bill. The notion that there are now pregnant women who, because of new discoveries in medicine, can take drugs which allow their baby to be born without being HIV positive, I call that saving lives and curing the problem. This is happening all over the countries where these programs are working. The notion that the United States is helping to take care of the orphans and other vulnerable children who are left without parents as a result of this epidemic I call saving lives and curing a problem. And as the ranking member said in her opening comments, the effect on these people and their recognition of the role the United States is playing is having a--it's a secondary question, but it's an important one--it's having a massive impact on how they perceive this country at a time when, for many other reasons, this country has not been perceived well in this world. This has been a remarkable program that has gone on. And I want to add my compliments to the staff, all the staff on the minority who worked on it, as well as Peter Yeo and Pearl-Alice Marsh and David Abramowitz, Kristin Wells, Heather Flynn with Chairman Don Payne, Christos Tsentas with Congresswoman Lee, as well as Mark Synnes with legislative counsel, Naomi Seiler and Jessica Boyer from the Oversight Committee staff, and on the Senate Foreign Relations majority staff, Brian McKeon and Shannon Smith. These are people who not only helped put this bill together, not only invested huge amounts of their time in working with the outside coalition forces, who have been working on the ground on these issues in Africa and other places, and also dealt with the administration, these are people who, when I got thrown into this issue, helped educate me. And I'm very grateful for all they have done to make this happen.

Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this bill, and I yield myself 7 minutes. Mr. Speaker, a few short months ago the House gave its strong bipartisan approval to H.R. 5501, the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008. Last Thursday, the Senate followed suit, approving its amendment to the House bill by an overwhelming margin of 80-16. We meet today to take up the Senate amendments and to send this bipartisan legislation to the President for his signature. The measure before the House today is a compromise, a compromise between Democrats and Republicans, between the House and the Senate, and between Congress and the executive branch. The fact that compromise was achievable in this highly politicized era is a testament to the bipartisan roots of this legislation. Five years ago, Tom Lantos and Henry Hyde, our dear deceased colleagues, working closely with the White House, crafted a global HIV/ AIDS bill that enjoyed broad bipartisan support. This groundbreaking legislation had a clear and achievable goal, to respond with compassion to those who were dying of AIDS, dramatically increase our Nation's efforts to stop the spread of HIV virus, provide care to children orphaned by AIDS, and get lifesaving medications immediately to those in need. As a result, our Nation has provided lifesaving antiretroviral medicines to nearly 1\1/2\ million men, women and children, supported care for nearly 7 million people, including nearly 3 million orphans and vulnerable children, and prevented an estimated 150,000 infant infections around the world. Most importantly, the United States has given hope to millions infected with the HIV virus, which just a few short years ago was tantamount to a death sentence. This law worked well as an emergency intervention to deal with the rapidly expanding HIV/AIDS crisis. But the nature of that disease has changed significantly since then. We now have 5 years of experience in grappling with this pandemic on a global scale, and the reauthorization bill before us reflects what we have learned. The law we passed in 2003 was designed to deal with the emergency phase of the HIV/AIDS crisis. This legislation moves our programs towards long-term sustainability that will keep the benefit of U.S. global HIV/AIDS programs flowing to those in need. With this reauthorization, host governments will also gain the ability to plan, direct and manage prevention, treatment and care programs that were originally established with U.S. assistance. The reauthorization bill authorizes nearly $50 billion over 5 years for these three pandemics. These additional funds allow us to significantly boost the health care workforce in those countries hard hit by HIV/AIDS with new professional and paraprofessional training programs, and to increase the number of HIV positive individuals receiving lifesaving medicine. The 2003 law focused on creating new programs to tackle the crisis. The reauthorization bill increases the number of individuals receiving prevention treatment and care services. It builds stronger linkages between the global HIV/AIDS initiative and existing programs designed to alleviate hunger among those treated. It helps to improve health care and bolster HIV education in schools. The 2003 law began to address the needs of women and girls. But given the changing nature of the epidemic, we clearly did not go far enough to meet these needs. The new legislation remedies this situation by strengthening prevention and treatment programs aimed at this extremely vulnerable population. The Lantos-Hyde bill eliminates the one-third abstinence- only earmark, but requires a balanced approach to sexual transmission programs and a report regarding this approach in countries where the epidemic has become generalized. In an effort to ensure that our contributions to the global fund are being wisely spent, the bill provides for certain benchmarks to improve the transparency and the accountability of the fund. The bill incorporates tuberculosis prevention from H.R. 1567 sponsored by Congressman Engel. It seeks to further integrate HIV/AIDS programs with TB and malaria programs and create linkages and referrals between these programs for patients. H.R. 5501 heightens U.S. efforts to combat malaria by requiring the development of a comprehensive 5-year strategy to combat this disease. It creates a new U.S. Government Malaria Coordinator, and it enhances support for clinical research for new diagnostics, treatments, and interventions to prevent, cure, and control malaria. The Senate made several changes in our bill. It overturned the existing visa ban on HIV-positive individuals. It targeted $2 billion of the $50 billion authorization for Indian health care, water resources, and law enforcement issues. It modified the goal for people living with AIDS and removed a linkage between the global HIV/AIDS program and family planning. Despite these changes, the language before the House today is very close to what we approved last April. With passage of this reauthorization bill, Congress signals to the world that the United States would exercise continued leadership in the global battle against malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS. So what we have here is a bipartisan bill providing nearly $50 billion for the battle against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, a bill that has strong bipartisan support, and one that the President has indicated he will sign into law. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I want to take special note that in the short time that I have been chairing this committee, I want to mention two particular people who have both helped educate me, two Members, colleagues on the committee who have played a major role in helping to guide this legislation and the earlier legislation: the chairman of the Africa Subcommittee, Don Payne, and Congresswoman Barbara Lee, both of whom have been involved in this legislation and the previous legislation from the beginning and were pushing for this even long before that passed. With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I offer the motion at the desk.