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The Global Access to AIDS Treatment Act (S 463). This bill, introduced by Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Russell Feingold, increases access to pharmaceuticals and seeks to build a better health care infrastructure.
Specifically, it allows developing countries undergoing a HIV/AIDS health care crisis to utilize compulsory licensing or parallel importing practices to gain access to affordable pharmaceuticals, authorizes $25 million a year in grants delivered by USAID to developing countries to implement programs to broaden health care system infrastructure and the capacity to deliver HIV/AIDS pharmaceuticals; establishes an international database of HIV/AIDS pharmaceuticals; and authorizes $1 million a year for a loan program for health care workers to provide international HIV/AIDS treatment and care in developing countries.
The Affordable HIV/AIDS Medicines for Poor Countries Act (HR 933). Rep. Maxine Waters re-introduced her bill from the last Congress in March. This bill makes it illegal for the US government to use the WTO’s intellectual property rights (TRIPS) agreement to challenge any developing country law or policy that promotes access to HIV/AIDS medicines and prohibits any agency of the US government from using federal funds to seek to revoke any law or policy of a developing country that promotes access to HIV/AIDS medicines.
The Global Health Act (HR 1269). This bill, re-introduced from the last Congress by Rep. Joseph Crowley, seeks a $1 billion increase in aid for global health programs, including an additional $275 million for HIV/AIDS.
A bill to authorize assistance for mother-to-child HIV/AIDS transmission prevention efforts (HR 684). Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald has introduced a bill calling for the Centers for Disease Control to establish pilot programs in Africa and India to prevent such transmission through partnerships with NGOs and university-based research facilities. Funds amount to $5 million for each of the next three fiscal years in addition to amounts already available for these purposes.
Debt Cancellation for HIV/AIDS Response Act (HR 1567). This bill, introduced by Rep. Barbara Lee, addresses debt issues as a crucial part of the AIDS picture, for the most indebted and impoverished nations in Africa are still devoting more funds to servicing debts than to providing basic health care. Since much of the bilateral debt between the US and some African nations has been relieved, the key obstacle now is multilateral debt, mainly between the IMF and World Bank on the one hand, and African nations on the other.
This bill seeks to secure cancellation of multilateral debt held by these two international financial institutions using resources they already have. It also calls for a moratorium on debt servicing without accrual of interest and rejects user fees, which demand that an African nation build a major barrier to access to basic health care by charging those living in poverty to visit a clinic. It further encourages African nations, as they benefit from debt relief, to direct a “significant proportion” of savings to AIDS and other health priorities.
Debt Cancellation for the New Millennium Act (HR 1642). Rep. Maxine Waters introduced this bill in April. It seeks to modify the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative of the international financial institutions, so that 100% of debt owed these institutions would be cancelled, and notes that savings from such debt relief may then be invested in HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention, health care, education, and poverty reduction.
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