President Signs New PEPFAR Bill

President Bush today signed into law the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which provides funding for HIV treatment and prevention.

House Will Agree To Senate’s PEPFAR Version

According to Kaiser Network, House leaders have announced that they will approve the Senate’s version of a bill to reauthorize the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, sending the measure to President Bush to sign into law.

Passed earlier in April, the House version of the bill would also allocate $50 billion for PEPFAR. There are some differences between the House and Senate versions, including:

• The House version would allow groups to use PEPFAR funding for HIV testing and education in family planning clinics–  but not for contraception or abortion services.
• The House version includes some spending mandates that are not in the Senate bill, including a requirement that 20% of PEPFAR funding be allocated to prevention.
• The Senate version includes a provision that more than half of the program’s aid go toward HIV/AIDS treatment and care.
• The Senate version would create links between HIV/AIDS and nutrition programs and set a target of recruiting 140,000 health care workers.

Both versions do have a number of common features, including:

• Language that overturns an existing law that requires one-third of prevention funds be spent on abstinence and fidelity programs, instead requiring a report to Congress if countries do not spend half of prevention money on such programs.
• A directive to put 10 percent of funding towards programs for orphans and vulnerable children, as well as allocate $2 billion for the Global Fund in fiscal year 2009.
• An existing requirement that organizations receiving PEPFAR aid have a policy that opposes commercial sex work.
• In addition, both measures would allocate $5 billion for malaria programs and $4 billion for tuberculosis initiatives.

Senate Passes PEPFAR

The U.S. Senate today passed 80-16 the Lantos/Hyde U.S. Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act (S 2731), which reauthorizes the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

PEPFAR has helped bring lifesaving drugs to 1.7 million people globally. The reauthorized bill commits $48 billion toward fighting HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in the world’s hardest-hit countries. The reauthorized bill also includes a provision to lift the long-standing statutory ban on HIV-positive people from traveling or immigrating to the U.S.

The bill now returns to the House for concurrence. The House version, passed in April, contains some differences, the main one being that the House version would allow groups to use PEPFAR funding for HIV testing and education in family planning clinics but not for contraception or abortion services.

For more information:

• APLA Press Release On PEPFAR Reauthorization
• Senator Joseph Biden’s Press Release 
• Washington Post: Senate Agrees To $50 Billion AIDS Plan