[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 856 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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117th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. RES. 856
Commemorating and supporting the goals of World AIDS Day.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
December 1, 2022
Mr. Booker (for himself and Mr. Sullivan) submitted the following
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Commemorating and supporting the goals of World AIDS Day.
Whereas, as of the end of 2021, an estimated 38,400,000 people were living with
human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
(AIDS), including 1,700,000 children;
Whereas, in the United States, more than 770,000 people with AIDS have died
since the beginning of the HIV epidemic, including over 18,000 deaths
among people with diagnosed HIV in 2020, with the disease
disproportionately affecting communities of color;
Whereas, in 2020, over 30,000 people became newly diagnosed with HIV in the
United States;
Whereas communities of color are disproportionately affected by HIV in the
United States;
Whereas, in order to address the HIV epidemic in the United States, on August
18, 1990, Congress enacted the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources
Emergency Act (Public Law 101-381; commonly referred to as the ``Ryan
White CARE Act'') to provide primary medical care and essential support
services for people living with HIV who are uninsured or underinsured;
Whereas the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program provides services and support for over
half of all people diagnosed with HIV in the United States;
Whereas, to further focus attention on the HIV/AIDS epidemic among minority
communities in the United States, in 1998 the Minority AIDS Initiative
was established to provide funds to State and local institutions and
organizations to best serve the health care costs and support the needs
of racial and ethnic minorities living with HIV;
Whereas the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals established a global
target to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030;
Whereas, in order to further address the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, in 2003,
Congress and the White House created the President's Emergency Plan for
AIDS Relief (referred to in this preamble as ``PEPFAR'');
Whereas the United States PEPFAR program remains the largest commitment in
history by any country to combat a single disease;
Whereas, as of September 30, 2022, PEPFAR has supported treatment for more than
20,000,000 people, and has enabled 5,500,000 infants of mothers living
with HIV to be born HIV-free;
Whereas, in fiscal year 2021, PEPFAR directly supported HIV testing and
counseling for 64,700,000 people;
Whereas the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was launched in
2002, and, as of 2021, has helped provide antiretroviral therapy to
approximately 23,300,000 people living with HIV/AIDS and to 670,000
pregnant women to prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS to their
children, saving an estimated 50,000,000 lives;
Whereas the United States is the largest donor to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria, and every $1 contributed by the United States
leverages an additional $2 from other donors, as required by law;
Whereas, with United States leadership, global partners pledged record amounts
to combat infectious diseases at the seventh replenishment of the Global
Fund to Fight AIDS in September 2022;
Whereas considerable progress has been made in the fight against HIV/AIDS,
including a nearly 30-percent reduction in new HIV infections, an over
50-percent reduction in new HIV infections among children, and an over
45-percent reduction in the number of AIDS-related deaths between 2010
and 2020;
Whereas approximately 28,700,000 people had access to antiretroviral therapy in
2021, compared to only 7,800,000 people who had access to such therapy
in 2010;
Whereas research funded by the National Institutes of Health found that HIV
treatment not only saves the lives of people living with HIV, but people
living with HIV on effective antiretroviral therapy and who are durably
virally suppressed cannot sexually transmit HIV--proving that HIV
treatment is prevention;
Whereas it is estimated that, without treatment, half of all infants living with
HIV will die before their second birthday;
Whereas, despite the remarkable progress in combating HIV, significant
challenges remain;
Whereas there were approximately 1,500,000 new HIV infections in 2021 globally,
structural barriers continue to make testing and treatment programs
inaccessible to highly vulnerable populations, and an estimated
5,900,000 people living with HIV globally still do not know their HIV
status;
Whereas the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that nearly
31,000 people were diagnosed with HIV in the United States in 2020 and
13 percent of the 1,200,000 people in the United States living with HIV
are not aware of their HIV status;
Whereas men who have sex with men (referred to in this preamble as ``MSM''),
particularly young MSM of color, are the population most affected by HIV
in the United States;
Whereas southern States bear the greatest burden of HIV in the United States,
accounting for 51 percent of new infections in 2018;
Whereas people living with HIV are frequently susceptible to other infections,
such as hepatitis B and C and tuberculosis;
Whereas the opioid and heroin epidemics have led to increased numbers of new HIV
infections among people who inject drugs, and the crisis has
disproportionately affected nonurban areas, where HIV prevalence rates
have been low historically and have limited services for HIV prevention
and treatment and substance use disorder treatment;
Whereas the COVID-19 pandemic has placed a significant burden on the public
health systems across the United States and the globe;
Whereas 2023 marks the 20th anniversary of the PEPFAR program, an initiative
launched by President George W. Bush with bi-partisan support that has
become the primary policy instrument of the United States to address
HIV/AIDS in the developing world;
Whereas December 1 of each year is internationally recognized as ``World AIDS
Day''; and
Whereas, in 2022, commemorations for World AIDS Day recognize that the
inequalities which perpetuate the AIDS pandemic are not inevitable and
that the world can tackle them: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) supports the goals and ideals of World AIDS Day,
including the goal to achieve zero new HIV infections, zero
discrimination, and zero AIDS-related deaths;
(2) commends the efforts and achievements in combating HIV/
AIDS through the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act,
the Minority HIV/AIDS Initiative, the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the
Office of Minority Health, and the Office of the Secretary of
Health and Human Services;
(3) commends the efforts and achievements in combating HIV/
AIDS made by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief,
the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and
the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS;
(4) supports efforts to end the HIV epidemic in the United
States and around the world by 2030;
(5) supports continued funding for prevention, care, and
treatment services, and research programs for communities
impacted by HIV and people living with HIV in the United States
and globally;
(6) urges, in order to ensure that an AIDS-free generation
is achievable, rapid action by all countries toward further
expansion and scale-up of antiretroviral treatment programs,
including efforts to reduce disparities and improve access for
children to life saving medications;
(7) encourages the scaling up of comprehensive prevention
services, including biomedical and structural interventions, to
ensure inclusive access to programs and appropriate protections
for all people at risk of contracting HIV, especially in
communities disproportionately impacted;
(8) calls for greater focus on the HIV-related
vulnerabilities of women and girls, including women and girls
at risk for or who have survived violence or faced
discrimination as a result of the disease;
(9) supports continued leadership by the United States in
domestic, bilateral, multilateral, and private sector efforts
to fight HIV;
(10) encourages input from civil society in the development
and implementation of domestic and global HIV policies and
programs that guide the response;
(11) encourages and supports greater degrees of ownership
and shared responsibility by developing countries in order to
ensure the sustainability of the domestic responses to HIV/AIDS
by those countries; and
(12) urges other members of the international community to
sustain and scale up their support for and financial
contributions to efforts around the world to combat HIV.
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