ONE members across the country are using the August recess as an opportunity to meet with their congressional leaders to advocate for the world’s poorest people. So far, ONE members have attended more than 45 meetings with their senators or house representatives. Here’s a compilation of some of last week’s visits:
ONE member Steve with a member of Sen. Nelson’s staff
Meeting at Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson’s Omaha Office
Recently, I met with one of Sen. Ben Nelson’s, (D-Neb.), staff members, Patrick Leahy. After briefly discussing ONE’s history, agenda and the strong membership we have here in Nebraska, we got on to some more urgent matters. I asked that Nelson sign the Lugar-Casey letter in support of the Global Food Security Act and increase funding for GAVI and the Global Fund.
I asked Patrick to relay our thanks to Nelson for his support in these areas. I also told him that we are aware and proud of Nelson’s important position on the appropriations committee and how lucky we are to have him representing Nebraska.
After weeks of ONE Campaign members relentlessly writing and calling their senators, and great work by so many partner organizations, we’ve successfully unstuck billions of dollars in AIDS, TB and malaria funding tonight!
We dodged several potentially devastating amendments over the last 2 days – pieces of legislation that would have put millions of lives at risk. We did lose one amendment-fight, however, so the total funding for PEPFAR for the next five years will now be $48 billion, instead of the original $50 billion.
After tonight’s successful Senate vote, the bill will go back to the House and then onto the president to sign. We are hopeful those processes will be swift.
Given how much we had to fight to reauthorize this bill this year- this is a great victory for us. Thank you to everyone who contacted their members of Congress to pass PEPFAR. Literally, millions of lives will be saved with this funding.
Below, a quote from our Legislative Director Tom Hart:
“Even as Americans face serious concerns at home, the Senate has proved America’s commitment to providing lifesaving medicines to the world’s most vulnerable people. PEPFAR is an investment in people around the world; but it is also an example of America’s generosity and a critical piece of American diplomacy. By treating and preventing disease and saving lives, we can help to create more stable communities and a more secure future for Americans.
Senators Biden, Lugar and Reid are true heroes for their persistence and patience in passing this bill. This legislation received strong support from co-sponsoring Senators on both sides of the aisle, including both Presidential candidates.”
After the jump find all the proposed amendments, their results, and those who voted for and against this bill.
I just finished a conference call regarding PEPFAR with Senator Harry Reid and a few fellow ONE volunteers. Senator Reid wanted to touch base with some of his NV constituents who have been following the progress of PEPFAR and actively pushing for passage this year, and share with us his gratitude for helping to move this important legislation forward.
Senator Reid mentioned that he had hoped to pass PEPFAR before the G8 summit and was disappointed that it didn’t, but was very pleased to announce that after the bill had been blocked for weeks by only a few senators, he was finally able to bring PEPFAR to Senate floor for a vote. Senator Reid said, “It is critical that we pass this important legislation. Diseases like AIDS, Malaria and TB are ravaging the developing world. In Africa alone AIDS kills 8,000 Africans every day, it takes no weekends off.”
ONE volunteers, Amber McIntosh, Adam Bellamy, Renee Meyocks, Karen Frost-Arnold, and Emily Miller were all eager for the opportunity to represent the 13,000 ONE members in Nevada, and we thanked Senator Reid for his leadership and commitment to pass PEPFAR.
Amber was able to ask Senator Reid how he envisioned the process will move forward, Senator Reid responded that he hopes the bill will pass tomorrow.
Karen was able to tell Senator Reid about her trip to Zambia, and how grateful she is to know that this legislation will commit resources to people just like those she met in Zambia who were suffering in their fight against AIDS every day.
We are almost there! If you haven’t already, call your senators and ask them to vote to pass this critical bill.
Senator Reid asked for unanimous consent to begin debating the PEPFAR bill yesterday afternoon but a couple of Republican Senators continued to object (despite the assurance that amendments would be allowed.) Moments later, as you can watch in this video, he filed for cloture.
Rewind to your high school civics class or your favorite senate.gov glossary page:
Cloture is the only way that the Senate can place a time limit on consideration of a bill- and in doing so, overcome a potential filibuster. The Senate must allow for 30 additional hours for discussion before the vote, and then the bill must receive 60 votes in order to pass.”
This sets the vote for Friday, although we could potentially see the vote happen today. A successful cloture vote will allow the Senate to begin debating the bill.
Millions of lives around the world rely on this funding is on the line- so we’ll be watching and keeping you posted here on the ONE Blog with updates.
I have the unfortunate job of sharing some disappointing news about global AIDS funding this morning.
We needed “Unanimous Consent” (or “UC”) to keep PEPFAR reauthorization moving in a timely and bi-partisan fashion. This means that every member on the Senate floor had to agree to the proposed legislation.
Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid asked for UC for PEPFAR twice this morning: Once with no amendments, and a second time with 4 amendments (2 from the Republican side and 2 from the Democratic side.) Both attempts failed to pass.
This means we now have no choice but to look to push for PEPFAR reauthorization after Congress’s scheduled recess.
This legislation is critical to millions of lives, and this means that President Bush will have a more difficult time pressuring other wealthy countries to follow the U.S.’s leadership and give more to global AIDS when he attends the July G8 summit in Japan.
Earlier in the week we were hopeful after Sen. Reid set a deadline for the completion of negotiations, with the intent of calling for UC and a vote on this important legislation. We do know that the major differences with Sen. Coburn have been addressed and that he has lifted his hold on the bill. Unfortunately not all the senators have come to an agreement yet – 3 in particular have maintained their holds and a 4th objected on the floor.
We are hopeful that negotiations will continue through the July 4th recess and that the momentum we built through the last few weeks will continue, culminating in a vote soon after the Senate comes back into session.
We will keep you updated with more analysis and plans. As ONE members, we have to be prepared to take action the next chance we get. The people who need this funding don’t have a voice in America’s legislative system – but we do.
Based on a comment made by Reid a couple hours ago, we hope to see an agreement in the next 24 hours. (Once some key senators are able to craft this agreement, the Senate should be able to move passed the current obstructions and onto the next step in the reauthorization process.) We expect to know more tomorrow, and will let you know when we do.
Reid’s comments from a 2pm press conference today:
“The global AIDS bill, the PEPFAR — I spoke to Senator Biden before lunch today. He asked me if I could wait for another 24 hours before I brought a unanimous consent request to pass this. He said almost all the problems are worked out.
I hope that’s the case. It’s something we need to do. It is important.
The president said he wants it. Now we’ve got to get folks on the other side of the aisle, the Republicans, to join with the president on this.”
Just a few moments ago Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid spoke of movement on PEPFAR during his morning remarks. I transcribed his comments below.
We are hopeful that negotiations are moving forward, but the agreement is not yet complete. We’ll keep you posted as we learn more.
Reid:
“We also are going to bring before the body within the next 24 hours the PEPFAR legislation. What is that? It’s the AIDS legislation that the president is in favor of and we’ve been trying to move.
It’s been held up on the other side by a senator or two.
And we are hope that we can complete that. Again I will ask consent that that be passed today.
It’s my understanding having spoken to Senator Enzi that he and Senator Biden have worked something out on that and hopefully the senator on the other side who’s objected to this will no longer object to it.”
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