Tom Lantos

Mr. LANTOS

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, the amendment offered by the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Millender-McDonald), my good friend and colleague, deals with a very important issue. The HIV/AIDS pandemic has had a frightening impact on women, particularly in Africa where 55 percent of all HIV/AIDS victims are women. Unequal inheritance rights all over the world, but particularly in Africa, favor men over women. Poor women are abandoned because of their HIV/AIDS status, widowed by the premature death of a husband, or left as orphans by the death of parents. Left with nothing but their desperation, these women and girls are exploited by sex traffickers, pimps, and abusive employers. Mr. Chairman, it is crucial that programs funded by this emergency program include the promotion and protection of women's inheritance rights, but we should not stop there. Women's equal rights across the board are absolutely essential to overcoming the poverty that underpins the seeming hopelessness of this disease. Mr. Chairman, I urge all of my colleagues to support this amendment.

Mr. LANTOS. I yield to the gentleman from Illinois.

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, will the gentlewoman yield?

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, we have no further requests for time, and we yield back the balance of our time.

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, will the gentlewoman yield?

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I want to congratulate and commend my friend from Minnesota for offering this most important amendment, which dramatically improves the underlying bill. On this side we are proud and pleased to accept her amendment.

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to my good friend, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown), a distinguished member of the Committee on International Relations, our ranking member on the Subcommittee on Health.

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to my good friend, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Olver), a distinguished member of the Committee on Appropriations.

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, this is a historic moment in dealing with global humanitarian legislation. What we were doing today on a bipartisan basis will save the lives of tens of millions of innocent people across the globe. We are doing it on a bipartisan basis with the typical generosity and humanitarian instincts of the American people. This is legislation we must all be proud of. It should pass with an overwhelming majority. We are supportive of the legislation. We are grateful for the President's support and we fully anticipate that lives around the globe will be improved as a result of our efforts. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of our time.

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I rise to claim the time in opposition.

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank my good friend from Louisiana (Mr. Tauzin) and my good friend from Ohio (Mr. Brown) for their thoughtful contribution to our legislation. Their amendment includes a number of complex initiatives, many of which reflect improvements to the bill. For example, I believe that the amendment's efforts to explicitly prioritize U.S. programs authorized by this Act to countries based on the size and demographics of the HIV/AIDS populations and the needs of those populations is a wise measure. I am concerned about several other provisions in the amendment. For example, the limitation on administrative expenditures of the Global Fund is well meaning, but when the fund may be going through a massive expansion of operations, there may be a need for some significant investments to make sure that the Global Fund can properly administer its programs. I was pleased that the sponsors added a waiver, and I believe that the President should consider the actual operations of the fund as he applies this provision. Finally, Mr. Chairman, I remain concerned regarding the provision requiring numerous reports to be provided to Congress within 30 days of the request. I am uncertain whether any Member could make this request or whether it must be a relevant committee or by resolution. Moreover, my experience with international organizations is that some of the documents may be considered confidential, such as unfunded proposals, and it may not be possible to get these documents within the time frame provided in the amendments. Nevertheless, Mr. Chairman, I am prepared to accept the amendment, and I look forward to working with the sponsors to clarify and further refine these provisions. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to yield the balance of my time to my friend, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) for the purposes of controlling time.

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I am very pleased to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to my good friend and distinguished colleague, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel), a valued member of the Committee on International Relations.

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I am delighted to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne), the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Africa of the Committee on International Relations, my good friend who has been one of the strongest leaders on this whole issue in the Congress.

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in strong support of this grand humanitarian legislation, and I urge all of my colleagues to make history today by securing its passage. Mr. Chairman, we could not have reached this day had it not been for the heroic efforts of the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde), my distinguished chairman and good friend. His leadership on this issue has been a true profile in courage, and I salute him. I also want to identify myself with his powerful and eloquent opening statement. Our colleagues on the Committee on International Relations, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) and the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Leach) on the Republican side, have also been critically instrumental to our success thus far as have many other members of the committee. With the support of every single Democrat and most Republicans on the Committee on International Relations, we have crafted a bipartisan piece of legislation worthy of this body's support. Mr. Chairman, the $15 billion authorized in this legislation to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria worldwide is an enormous sum by any measure. It is five times the amount we considered authorizing for this cause just last year. For those of us who have long called for a real commitment of resources to address the HIV/AIDS crisis, our day has arrived. As impressive as these amounts are, they are no more than the crisis demands. Every day AIDS claims the lives of thousands of innocent men, women, and, yes, children, old and young, sick and able- bodied, destitute and affluent, unemployed and professional, African, Asian, and American. This disease, Mr. Chairman, does not discriminate. It targets us all; and in doing so, it ruins families, decimates communities, and fuels the violence and bloodshed that destroys whole nations. The political, economic, social, and humanitarian impact of this scourge cannot be contained to one region or to one population. It is a global human challenge that demands a global humanitarian response with the United States in the lead. The tragic history of this disease has shown that there are no silver bullets. We must use every means at our disposal to defeat it. All legislation builds to a significant extent upon Uganda's success in curbing the spread of AIDS through a combination of abstinence, monogamy, and condom use. In lending his support to this bill earlier this week, President Bush endorsed this three-pronged approach. In the President's words, preventing spread of HIV/AIDS requires a strategy emphasizing abstinence, marital fidelity, as well as condoms. Each element is crucial. Uganda's success in combating HIV/AIDS required not only abstinence and marital fidelity education programs but the distribution of nearly 80 million condoms per year. Countless lives will be lost if we fail to learn this lesson and undermine the balanced approach exquisitely negotiated and embodied in this bill. Mr. Chairman, in the his State of the Union address earlier this year, the President issued a challenge to Congress to join him in a new global campaign to combat HIV/AIDS. Today we take up the President's challenge and seek to fully fund this bold initiative. An overwhelming vote by the House of Representatives today to pass H.R. 1298 without crippling amendments will bring the President's vision, a vision most of us share, close to reality. The time for words has passed and the time for action has arrived in our struggle against HIV/AIDS. I urge my colleagues to join me today to pass this historic legislation. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. LANTOS

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I rise in opposition to the Smith amendment. First, I would like to thank the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) for his long-standing leadership on human rights' matters and for his support for this critically important legislation. His vote in committee in favor of H.R. 1298 was greatly appreciated. I would also like to note that the amendment being offered today is different from the one that was offered in committee. The amendment offered in committee during markup was deeply offensive in that consciences were only granted to faith-based organizations. The amendment before us today builds upon language already in H.R. 1298. The bill currently states that an organization receiving funds under this act shall not be required to endorse or utilize a multisectoral approach to combating HIV/AIDS. In other words, a group does not need to endorse condom use or hand out condoms or endorse abstinence and promote abstinence education to receive money under this act. The Smith amendment adds a new clause to the current language. It states that groups shall not be required to endorse, utilize, or participate in a prevention method or treatment program to which the organization has a religious or moral objection. I certainly agree, Mr. Chairman, that no organization should be required to have anything to do with a program to which it has religious or moral objections. However, I remain concerned that some organizations will use this clause to implement programs designed to undermine other HIV/AIDS prevention strategies, including effective condom use. I am also concerned that groups utilizing one approach to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment will refuse to refer someone to another organization which offers a different method of HIV/AIDS prevention. Mr. Chairman, it is critically important that organizations which receive HIV/AIDS funds from the United States work closely and collaboratively supporting each other's work. Abstinence-only groups should not use United States' funds to tell men and women in Uganda that condoms do not work and are morally wrong and condoms-only groups should not use U.S. funds to denigrate abstinence. Mr. Chairman, I greatly respect the work of faith-based organizations around the world, which are playing a critical role in battling HIV/ AIDS; but until we clarify these questions, I cannot support the amendment in its current form. Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask my good friend, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), whether he would be willing to add the following words at the end of his amendment by unanimous consent: ``Except that such organization may not undermine interventions that it does not endorse, utilize or participate in.''

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I am delighted to yield 1 minute to my good friend, the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Shays).

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I yield the remaining 1 minute of our time to my good friend, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee). (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I yield the balance of my time to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee), and I ask unanimous consent that she be allowed to control that time.

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen).

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I yield 45 seconds to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Lowey). (Mrs. LOWEY asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as she may consume to my friend, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee). (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde), the distinguished chairman of the Committee on International Relations, be granted such time as he may consume to make a concluding statement.

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I am delighted and honored to yield the balance of my time to my good friend and neighbor, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), the distinguished Democratic Leader.

Mr. LANTOS

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my distinguished colleague for yielding to me, and since he may not participate in the debate on the bill itself, I wished to publicly pay tribute to his leadership role on this most important issue.

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?