Howard Berman

Mr. BERMAN

Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to oppose the motion to recommit.

Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. BERMAN. Madam Chairman, the gentleman's amendment, and I have spoken to him about it, encourages the Global Fund Inspector General to not only audit its grantees, but also the subgrantees and subrecipients who receive Global Fund money. Obviously, I share the gentleman's concern that transparency and accountability in the use of HIV/AIDS assistance provided through the Global Fund is critically important for all the reasons that he stated. The Global Fund, in all fairness, I do want to point out, has shown, I believe, its commitment to that transparency and accountability. It has a new inspector general, and has instituted an enhanced accounting system that focuses on improving accountability among subrecipients. But the principle of this amendment makes sense. While there are some technical issues I will want to talk to him about as we move through the legislative process, I look forward to working with him on it and I certainly urge the adoption of the amendment. I yield 1 minute to the gentlelady from Florida, the ranking member.

Mr. BERMAN. I appreciate the gentleman yielding, and the gentleman is absolutely correct. Part 2 of the report is the definitive report on the legislation being considered by the House today.

Mr. BERMAN. Madam Chairman, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to my colleague from California (Ms. Woolsey), the chairman of the Education and Labor Subcommittee on Workforce Protections and a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Mr. BERMAN. Madam Chairman, I appreciate the gentlewoman yielding, and I rise to join you in supporting the gentleman's amendment. What was interesting to me was to learn, and there are many things I learned in this bill that I didn't know, but one was that about 1.2 billion people globally lack safe water to consume in the least-developed countries, and up to 90 percent of AIDS patients, 90 percent, suffer and frequently die from the chronic diarrheal diseases that the gentleman discussed. These diseases are caused by the use of unsafe water. This is a compelling amendment. I join the gentlewoman in supporting it.

Mr. BERMAN. Madam Chairman, I am pleased to yield 1 liberal minute to the majority leader, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer).

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

Mr. BERMAN. I yield the gentleman an additional minute.

Mr. BERMAN. Madam Chairman, I am very pleased to yield to my friend from California, someone who has been heavily invested in getting our attention on this issue and passing the legislation, putting, fashioning and passing the legislation in 2003 and again this time, our gentlelady from California, Barbara Lee, for 5 minutes.

Mr. BERMAN. I yield the gentlelady an additional 2 minutes.

Mr. BERMAN. Madam Chairman, while I do not oppose the amendment, I ask unanimous consent to take the time in opposition.

Mr. BERMAN. Madam Chairman, will the gentlewoman yield?

Mr. BERMAN. Madam Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Chairman, on the President's request 5 years ago, Congress launched a global campaign to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS and to treat and care for those who are already afflicted. The United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Act was a bipartisan bill from its inception. Today, the Foreign Affairs Committee again brings a bipartisan global HIV/AIDS bill to the floor, and again this important reauthorization bill enjoys strong support from the White House. The negotiations that brought forth this compromise bill were conducted in the same bipartisan spirit that guided the 2003 act into law, a spirit made possible by close cooperation between two former chairmen of the Foreign Affairs Committee, our late colleagues Tom Lantos and Henry Hyde, and I am pleased to note that this important reauthorization bill is named for these two foreign policy titans in recognition of their contributions to battling HIV/AIDS overseas. As a direct result of the extraordinarily successful law we passed 5 years ago, the United States has provided lifesaving drugs to nearly 1.5 million men, women and children; supported care for nearly 7 million people, including 2.7 million orphans and vulnerable children; and prevented an estimated 150,000 infant infections around the world. The 2003 legislation firmly established the United States as the leading provider in the world of HIV/AIDS assistance for prevention, treatment and care. It has reminded the global community that Americans are a compassionate and generous people, and so has helped to repair our Nation's badly-damaged image overseas. In many ways, that legislation has had great healing power. Most importantly, with this initiative we have ensured that HIV/AIDS is no longer the certain death sentence it was just 5 short years ago. Hospital corridors that were jammed with AIDS patients waiting to die now brim with hope as lifesaving drugs are dispensed. The reauthorization bill before the House today reaffirms our commitment to the programs and policies established 5 years ago. The 2003 legislation worked well as an emergency intervention, but it must now be modified to reflect the constantly changing nature of the HIV/AIDS crisis. We also have 5 years of experience under our belts and we know what works and what does not. The law we passed in 2003 was designed to deal with the emergency phase of the global HIV/AIDS crisis. The Lantos-Hyde bill will move our programs towards long-term sustainability that will keep the benefits of U.S. global HIV/AIDS programs flowing to those in need. With this reauthorization act, host governments will also gain the ability to plan, direct and manage prevention treatment and care programs that have been established with U.S. assistance. The 2003 legislation authorized $15 billion over 5 years. In response to the desperate need for lifesaving medicine and a greater number of trained health care workers in nations hard hit by HIV/AIDS, the bill before us authorizes $50 billion over 5 years for these three pandemics. The 2003 law relied upon the health care workforce already in place in the developing world, yet in many of the hardest hit areas of the world there are simply not enough doctors and other health care workers to meet the challenges of this pandemic. The Lantos-Hyde legislation invests new funds in training new professionals and paraprofessionals, as well as building existing capacity. The 2003 law focused on creating new programs to tackle the HIV/AIDS crisis. The reauthorization bill increases the number of individuals receiving prevention, treatment and care services. It also builds stronger linkages between the global HIV/AIDS initiative and existing programs designed to alleviate hunger, improve health care, and bolster HIV education in schools, an approach endorsed by the President's Global AIDS Coordinator just a few short weeks ago. The 2003 law gave inadequate attention to the needs of women and girls. The new legislation remedies this situation by strengthening prevention and treatment programs aimed at this especially vulnerable population. The reauthorization legislation also eliminates the one-third abstinence-only earmark, but requires a balanced approach to HIV/AIDS sexual transmission prevention programs and a report regarding this approach in countries where the epidemic has become generalized. The bill before you today is a compromise in the best sense of the word, and it is in the true spirit of the great leaders of this committee who guided the 2003 act into law, Chairmen Lantos and Hyde. This bill is the result of more than a year of preparatory work and weeks of discussions, concluding with a bipartisan agreement with the White House. President Bush has indicated his support and his intention to sign it into law as soon as Congress acts. For all its strengths, the bill before the House today is not perfect. No compromise ever is. No one got everything they wanted in this compromise legislation. But with this agreement, we have maintained the strong, bipartisan coalition behind the global HIV/AIDS initiative which has been critical to winning rapidly increasing funding levels for this important initiative. Madam Chairman, 20 million innocent men, women and children have perished from HIV/AIDS, and 40 million around the globe are HIV positive. Each and every day another 6,000 people become infected with HIV. We have a moral imperative to act, and to act decisively. I will speak more lengthily about the subject, but I do want to initially extend my particular appreciation to our ranking member, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who played a critical role in working with the majority to reach this compromise. A number of Members on her side from the committee were active. Don Payne, the gentleman from New Jersey, the chairman of the Africa Subcommittee, was critically involved, as was Congresswoman Barbara Lee from California, who played such a key role in the 2003 law, as well as a number of other people, such as Congressman Carnahan. I can't mention everyone who was involved, but this was truly a collaborative effort that started long before I became Chair of the committee, with great work by Chairman Lantos last year and with the staff of the committee. Madam Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BERMAN. I yield the gentleman an additional minute.

Mr. BERMAN. Madam Chairman, I am very pleased to yield 3 minutes to the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. And remember, this is a bill about HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. He played a major role in the tuberculosis section of the bill, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel).

Mr. BERMAN. Madam Chairman, before I respond with my views, I would like to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne) to express his views on the subject of this colloquy.

Mr. BERMAN. Madam Chairman, I yield myself 1\1/2\ minutes to respond to the concerns raised during this colloquy. I thank my colleagues for raising these important concerns. H.R. 5501 provides 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. I would like to emphasize that the committee and I personally share our colleagues' concerns about the negative effect rising costs are having on our long-term and emergency food aid programs. This is a matter that has our most serious attention, because it affects a wide array of our food aid and development programs, including the effectiveness and success of this program. I want to reassure my colleagues that I will be working over the coming weeks to strengthen and clarify in the bill 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 and security elsewhere in the world or in these countries. I yield 30 seconds' additional time to the gentleman from Massachusetts.

Mr. BERMAN. Madam Chairman, I am pleased to yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne), the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, and a key architect of this legislation.

Mr. BERMAN. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. BERMAN

Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Clerk be authorized to make technical corrections in the engrossment of H.R. 5501, to include corrections in spelling, punctuation, section numbering and cross-referencing, and in the insertion of appropriate headings.

Mr. BERMAN

Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 5501.

Mr. BERMAN

Mr. BERMAN. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlelady from Nevada (Ms. Berkley).

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

Mr. BERMAN

Mr. BERMAN. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution and yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to support this resolution that notes the tragic poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, expresses concern about the potential involvement of elements of the Russian Government in his death, and highlights the need to ensure the security of radioactive materials. And I'd like to thank my good friend and the ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, for introducing this important measure. In late November 2006, Americans joined with many around the world in watching with horror as a youthful, energetic Russian dissident and British citizen dramatically changed appearances within days. Who can forget the piercing blue eyes of the bald and gaunt man staring intently at the camera from a London hospital bed? After the completion of an autopsy, British health officials concluded that Alexander Litvinenko had died on November 23, 2006 of radiation poisoning caused by ingesting the radioactive element Polonium-210. British law enforcement officials classified his death as murder. Alexander Litvinenko was an agent in the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation at the time when Vladimir Putin ran the agency. Mr. Litvinenko was fired from the service in 1998, then was arrested and briefly held without conviction after accusing senior Security Service officials of assassination plots. Mr. Litvinenko successfully sought asylum in Britain, from where he continued to accuse the Security Service of involvement in illegal activities. The night before falling ill, Mr. Litvinenko reportedly dined with three Russian citizens, including former Federal Security Service Agent Andrei Lugovoi. On May 22, 2007, British authorities announced their intent to prosecute Mr. Lugovoi for the murder of Mr. Litvinenko. After Russia refused to extradite Mr. Lugovoi to Britain, a political dispute ensued between the two countries that resulted in the mutual expulsion of diplomats. The murder of Alexander Litvinenko clearly raises disturbing questions about how elements of the Russian Government appear to deal with their enemies and perceived threats. It also raises worrying questions about the security and proliferation of radioactive material. 97 percent of the world's legal production of Polonium-210 occurs at the Avangard nuclear facility in Russia, the country that is also the world's leading exporter of this substance for commercial purposes. If the Russian government is not responsible for Litvinenko's death, as President Putin has stated, then it should be urgently investigating the security of the production, storage, distribution and export of Polonium-210 to prevent grave threats to international security. The resolution calls on President Bush and Secretary Rice to urge President Putin and President-elect Medvedev to cooperate with British authorities in finding answers to ensure the safety and security of all our citizens. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this resolution. I reserve the balance of my time.