[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 861 Introduced in House (IH)]
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116th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 861
Supporting the role of the United States in helping save the lives of
children and protecting the health of people in poor countries with
vaccines and immunization through the GAVI Alliance.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 21, 2020
Ms. McCollum (for herself, Mrs. Brooks of Indiana, Ms. Lee of
California, Mr. Fitzpatrick, Mr. Smith of Washington, and Mr. Yoho)
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee
on Foreign Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Supporting the role of the United States in helping save the lives of
children and protecting the health of people in poor countries with
vaccines and immunization through the GAVI Alliance.
Whereas, prior to 2000, the distribution of and the resources for vaccines for
children in the developing world were declining, immunization rates were
stagnant or decreasing, and nearly 10,000,000 children died each year
before reaching their 5th birthday;
Whereas, prior to 2000, it was common for new lifesaving vaccines to take up to
15 years to be introduced in the world's poorest countries;
Whereas access to routine immunization and vaccines protects children from
deadly but preventable disease and contributes to national economic
growth and poverty reduction by ensuring people live longer, healthier,
and more productive lives;
Whereas, in 2000, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the United States, the
United Nations Children's Fund, the World Health Organization, the World
Bank, government donors, developing countries, the private sector
(including the vaccine industry), faith-based organizations, civil
society, and other partners joined forces to create a public-private
partnership called the Global Fund for Children's Vaccine (now the GAVI
Alliance) in order to expand access to new and underused vaccines and
support the introduction and scaleup of these vaccines into routine
immunization systems in the world's poorest countries;
Whereas, since 2000, with support from the United States, and other donors and
partners, the GAVI Alliance has supported country-led vaccine
initiatives in 73 countries to support the immunization of more than
760,000,000 additional children and will avert an estimated 13,000,000
deaths in the world's poorest countries;
Whereas the financing of vaccines by the GAVI Alliance has been a major factor
in reducing the number of deaths due to vaccine preventable disease by
as much as 70 percent since 2000;
Whereas country ownership and sustainability are at the core of the GAVI
Alliance model, which requires GAVI-eligible countries to contribute
domestic financing to a portion of their vaccine costs and directly
invest in immunizing their children;
Whereas 73 developing countries working with the GAVI Alliance have cofinanced
new and underused vaccines supported by the GAVI Alliance, more than 18
countries will have transitioned from GAVI support by the end of 2020,
and a further 10 countries (40 percent of the original set of GAVI-
eligible countries) are projected to transition during GAVI's next
strategic cycle between 2021 and 2025, moving toward fully funding their
immunization programs;
Whereas the GAVI Alliance has transformed the market for vaccines by matching
pooled demand from developing countries with secure, predictable
financing to make vaccines more affordable and supply more reliable,
which will result in savings of over $900,000,000 from 2021 to 2025, and
encouraging research and development of new vaccines;
Whereas the GAVI Alliance has played a critical role in increasing the number of
global vaccine manufacturers selling to the world's poorest countries
from 5 in 2001 to 17 in 2018;
Whereas the GAVI Alliance is poised to provide the most comprehensive package of
support in the 2021-2025 period by financing and delivering 18 vaccines
to the world's poorest countries;
Whereas the GAVI Alliance collaborates with the Global Polio Eradication
Initiative on the final push to end polio, strengthening and bringing
the inactivated polio vaccine into routine immunization programs;
Whereas strong programs in health systems are needed to implement additional
polio protection;
Whereas the GAVI Alliance has made significant progress in supporting the
development and stockpiling of an effective vaccine to combat Ebola;
Whereas the GAVI Alliance is participating in efforts to test and implement an
effective vaccine to prevent malaria, a disease that kills more than
500,000 children a year;
Whereas the GAVI Alliance supports the strengthening of health systems to ensure
effective immunization and health services;
Whereas even with significant progress in increasing immunization coverage
through the GAVI Alliance support, 19,400,000 children annually in lower
income countries still miss out on a full course of the most basic
vaccines;
Whereas the cumulative effects of population growth, displacement, and
increasing fragility, coupled with those of recurrent disease outbreaks,
are threatening hard-won gains and increase the risk of backsliding;
Whereas outbreaks risk jeopardizing the achievements of national routine
immunization programs, and given the enormous increase in human
mobility, threaten global health security;
Whereas vaccines are widely regarded as a high-impact, evidence-based
intervention and are known as one of the ``best buys'' in global health
and recognized as one of the most efficient, cost-effective, and
successful health initiatives in history;
Whereas the prevention of infectious disease through immunization in GAVI-
eligible countries provides protection and health security in the United
States;
Whereas United States investment in the GAVI Alliance complements and enhances
the effectiveness of other United States investments in global health,
particularly in child survival;
Whereas the GAVI Alliance is committed to working with partners, including
United States bilateral programs run by the United States Agency for
International Development and the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention to ensure children in developing nations have access to
vaccines and immunizations;
Whereas access to vaccines is an essential part of ending preventable childhood
deaths and preventing other fatal diseases;
Whereas, in August 2019, the GAVI Alliance called on donors to support an
ambitious plan to immunize an additional 300,000,000 children against
potentially fatal diseases between 2021 and 2025, and save an additional
7,000,000 to 8,000,000 lives;
Whereas GAVI-eligible countries are expected to contribute $3,600,000,000 of
their own domestic funding toward their vaccine programs in the GAVI
Alliance's 2021-2025 strategic period, more than doubling their funding
from the $1,600,000,000 contributed during the 2015-2020 period;
Whereas the third GAVI replenishment conference will be held in June 2020 hosted
by the United Kingdom to obtain funding commitments to support the
organization's programs from 2021 to 2025;
Whereas the GAVI Alliance needs donors to invest at least an additional
$7,400,000,000 for its third replenishment cycle to support developing
countries' immunization programs from 2021 to 2025;
Whereas the United States has consistently supported the goal of saving lives by
contributing to the GAVI Alliance to meet its projected replenishment
and program goals;
Whereas the United States has made contributions to the GAVI Alliance in the
amount of $290,000,000 in each of fiscal years 2018 and 2019, and has
appropriated this amount for fiscal year 2020;
Whereas with this support and support from other donors, the GAVI Alliance will
have contributed to saving more than 20,000,000 lives by the end of 2025
and unlocked between $80,000,000 to $100,000,000 in economic benefits
through health care savings and productivity gains; and
Whereas a strong commitment from the United States remains necessary to ensure
predictability and stability to the vaccine market, to enable strong
global health security efforts, spur confidence in GAVI-eligible
countries, and encourage continued innovative vaccine-related
approaches: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) affirms the United States continued support for the
purchase of vaccines for developing countries through the GAVI
Alliance as a cost-effective, efficient means to reduce
mortality and as a critical component of meeting the United
States goal to end preventable maternal and child deaths;
(2) supports the principles and goals of the GAVI Alliance
to--
(A) introduce and scale up immunization;
(B) improve sustainability of immunization
programs;
(C) ensure healthy markets for vaccines and related
products; and
(D) strengthen health systems to increase equity in
immunization;
(3) recognizes that the United States Government support to
the GAVI Alliance is a critical component to ensuring health
security in the United States;
(4) encourages the continued use of United States Agency
for International Development maternal and child health and
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention global immunization
resources to strengthen local public health capacity to
introduce and sustain new and underutilized vaccines, that are
supported by the GAVI Alliance, through routine immunization
systems;
(5) recognizes the need for multiyear pledges from the
United States to allow GAVI to maximize its impact to provide
lifesaving vaccines and to leverage contributions from other
countries and donors; and
(6) encourages continued commitment and investment at least
at the current appropriated funding level by the United States
Government to the GAVI Alliance in the 2021-2025 GAVI Alliance
strategic period in order to ensure that lives are protected
and saved through access to vaccines and immunizations.
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