Remarks on the Background and Strategy of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief

Good afternoon.  Welcome to the United States Department of State. We’re delighted to have you here. There are a number of State Department officers sitting with you today, and I hope you will take advantage of their presence during your lunchtime conversation. They represent an extraordinary array of experiences -- so ask them anything you can think of! But today, I can make a strong case that it is you who are the most important people in this building -- because you are truly America’s future. I congratulate all of you for taking part in the Senate Youth Program, and I’m pleased to be with you.

Someday you will be asked take the reigns of power in this nation as leaders in politics, business, and education. So consider this experience a training camp, presenting you with scenarios that echo the challenges that our nation’s leaders must deal with today.

Much of what goes on here in Washington is very noble of purpose. But it’s not all nice and neat and orderly in the doing. That’s part of our process, where the checks and balances are enormous. And even though this process has served our nation very well for more than two centuries, perhaps by the end of the program you will understand why Otto von Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor of Germany, declared that there are two things you should never watch being made -- laws and sausages!

One of the primary challenges global leaders face today is fighting AIDS. In 1983, there were only 2,000 known cases of AIDS in the United States. Within your lifetime that number has risen from 2,000 to 40 million cases worldwide. And it shows no sign of abating. In 2003, 3 million people died of AIDS while 5 million became newly infected.

So now imagine this scenario -- Monday morning, you pick up the paper and find the horrifying news that on Sunday, twenty 747 jets, each carrying over 400 passengers, had crashed at multiple locations. The total number killed was more than 8,000. Now imagine that on Tuesday morning, you pick up the paper to find the same news -- another 20 fully loaded 747s had crashed killing all 8000 passengers. And the same on Wednesday, and so on through the week. That is the devastation of AIDS. Now imagine that you are the presidents or prime ministers of the world’s many nations. What would you do?

It is a very daunting challenge that will require enormous resources to address. Well, sadly, I have to tell you that at least one part of this scenario is true. Day after day, the HIV/AIDS epidemic really does kill over 8,000 people. Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, children -- all lost to AIDS.

Just over a year ago, President George Bush responded in a way no global leader has ever done before. In his State of the Union address in 2003, President Bush announced an unprecedented commitment of $15 billion to fight HIV/AIDS over the next 5 years to fight the international HIV/AIDS pandemic. That is more than any nation anywhere has ever committed to fight a disease at any time in history.

And if you knew President Bush as I have come to know him, you would not be surprised at this genuine and heart-felt humanitarian gesture. As recently as a week ago, the President told me that as a national priority, we must consider our effort to fight AIDS around the world to be on the same plane as our effort to bring freedom and stability to the people of Iraq and our war on global terrorism.

The sad part is that most other wealthy nations are not contributing enough to the global struggle with AIDS. Last year America spent more money combating AIDS internationally than all the other nations of the world COMBINED! And this year, if the other nation’s contributions hold level -- which I desperately hope is not the case -- then we will expend TWICE as much fighting AIDS around the world as all the others nations combined.

But the President can only propose, it is Congress that disposes. In May of last year, just 5 months after the President’s announcement, both the House and the Senate passed legislation authorizing the President’s Emergency Plan, and the President signed that legislation into law, officially creating the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

The Constitution gives “the power of the purse” to initiate the spending of our Federal tax dollars, only to the House of Representatives. The resulting appropriations bills, like all laws, have to then pass both House and Senate. And, like making sausages, making laws that involve the budget takes a fair amount of time and effort.

Just 6 weeks ago both Senate and House passed the appropriations legislation to provide the funding for the first year of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The next day, President Bush signed the appropriations bill into law.

Just last Monday, I held a press conference here in the State Department’s second floor press briefing room -- the one you’ve probably seen many times on television news, when the State Department’s spokesman, Richard Boucher, is talking to the press about various foreign policy matters. Joining me at the podium were Secretary of State Colin Powell, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson, and USAID administrator Andrew Natsios.

The press conference was to announce some fantastic and unexpected news. Just three weeks after Congress appropriated funds to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief -- with unprecedented speed -- $350 million, the first funds from the Emergency Plan, was being released to flow to nations that need it most.

These initial funds are targeted to quickly expand and establish programs providing antiretroviral treatment, prevention programs, including those targeted at youth, safe medical practices programs, and programs to provide care for orphans and vulnerable children. With just this first round of funds, an additional 50,000 people living with HIV/AIDS will begin to receive treatment, nearly doubling the number of people currently receiving treatment in all of sub-Saharan Africa.

Resources will be provided to assist in the care of about 60,000 additional orphans who have lost both parents to HIV/AIDS. In addition, prevention through abstinence messages -- messages about the importance of young people delaying becoming sexually active until they are married or in a committed relationship -- will reach about 500,000 additional young people. And particularly in the countries in Africa and the Caribbean where infection rates are so high, that message is critical.

Historically, Americans have thought of AIDS as a disease found mostly among gay men. And here in the U.S., that used to be true. But in the rest of the world, it is largely a heterosexual disease. In fact, 50% of those with HIV/AIDS are women. And it is increasingly becoming a heterosexual disease in the U.S. -- a fact that you and all young people need to be aware of. Last year, here in the U.S., 30% of those newly infected with HIV were women -- primarily teenaged girls or women in their early 20s. Twenty years ago, only 6% were women. More and more America resembles the rest of the world

Our Strategic Plan, also released at this press conference, outlines how we will devote $15 billion over 5 years to turn the tide against global AIDS. Over the course of the Emergency Plan, some $9 billion will go to new programs to address HIV/AIDS in 14 of the world’s most affected nations – we call them “focus countries”. A 15th focus country will be added in the next few weeks. These countries account for more than 50% of the world’s AIDS infections. Five billion will go to provide continuing support in the approximately 100 nations where the United States currently has bilateral HIV/AIDS programs. And $1 billion will go to support our principal multilateral partner, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

In the focus countries, over the 5 years of the plan, our goals are to:

• Provide treatment for 2 million people living with HIV/AIDS
• Prevent 7 million new HIV infections, and
• Provide care to 10 million people infected or affected by the disease, including orphans and other vulnerable children

Finally, I want to say how grateful I am for the strong support of President Bush and Secretary Powell, both of whom are very committed to this battle. For all of us, success will be measured in nations moving forward with development, lives saved, and families held intact. In the end, that’s what this Plan is all about. Now I’ll be pleased to open the floor to questions.