News

GOP House Passes Comprehensive Global AIDS Legislation

Log Cabin Applauds Leadership, Commitment of Rep. Henry Hyde and U.S. House

December 11, 2001

(WASHINGTON, DC) – The House of Representatives today unanimously passed comprehensive legislation to address the growing HIV/AIDS pandemic in the developing world, a hallmark accomplishment of the House this year, under the leadership of Congressman Henry Hyde (R-IL), Chairman of the House International Relations Committee.

"We applaud Chairman Hyde's tenacious commitment and leadership in passing this important legislation to combat AIDS around the world," said Rich Tafel, executive director of Log Cabin Republicans. "We were proud to work with him on this legislation all year, and we applaud the leadership and support of Congressman Tom Lantos (D-CA), Congressman Jim Kolbe (R-AZ), Congressman Jim Leach (R-IA) and Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA), all of whom worked very hard to support this legislation."

"We hope the Senate Democratic leadership also makes global AIDS a major priority and takes up this issue early next year," Tafel said.

"The scourge of HIV/AIDS is one of the great moral challenges of our era, for it is one of the most compelling humanitarian and national security crises of modern times," Hyde said on the House floor before the vote.

Hyde also praised the primary medical care work of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation in his opening remarks, stressing that he hoped that "successful treatment programs such as those carried out by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation will be replicated in developing countries."

The Hyde bill, entitled the Global Access to HIV/AIDS Prevention, Awareness, Education and Treatment Act (HR 2069) is a $1.3 billion program which authorizes $750 million to the international AIDS trust fund, launched by President Bush and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan earlier this year; $485 million in bilateral assistance through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for HIV/AIDS education, treatment and prevention programs; $50 million for a pilot treatment access program; and new funding support for building health care delivery infrastructure, prevention of prenatal HIV transmission, vaccine research and development partnership programs, and other purposes.

On May 3 of this year, Chairman Hyde announced his intention to introduce this legislation and outlined his goals at the annual Log Cabin Republicans Congressional Briefing on Capitol Hill. The Committee held hearings and passed HR 2069 in June by a vote of 32-4.