PEPFAR Status

Jun 3rd, 2008 6:06 PM UTC
By Virginia Simmons

In case you missed it, the Washington Post ran an excellent editorial on the frustrating status of PEPFAR reauthorization.

Some excerpts from the piece:

“THE PRESIDENT’S Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is American “soft power” at its life-saving best….Even President Bush’s harshest critics concede that PEPFAR, which has cost $15 billion so far, is one of his best accomplishments. When Mr. Bush asked Congress to authorize a five-year, $30 billion extension, Democratic lawmakers in both houses raised the proposed funding level to $50 billion, and legislation sailed through with bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.”

Then it stopped: Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and six other Republicans have exercised their prerogative to keep it off the Senate floor. Mr. Coburn wants to mandate that 55 percent of PEPFAR’s money go to treating those who are already sick with AIDS — as opposed to preventing new cases and other purposes…

Both the House and Senate bills remove rigid mandates for treatment and prevention spending. But, avoiding a new culture war, they meet conservatives’ concerns, requiring that PEPFAR recipients promise to stay out of prostitution and that country teams tell Congress if abstinence and fidelity programs fall to less than half of their prevention spending. This is compromise legislation that expands and modernizes America’s signature global health initiative. Properly implemented under careful congressional oversight, it could add to PEPFAR’s proud record. Mr. Coburn and his colleagues should get out of the way.

Read the full editorial here.

TAGS: HIV/AIDS, PEPFAR, PEPFAR Reauthorization