Nearly going unnoticed for the past two and a half months, a Leonidas-like last stand has been taking place on Capitol Hill. However, unlike the glorified Battle of Thermopylae, the last stand currently being perpetuated by Sen. Tom Coburn, is anything but worthy of panegyrics.
Along with Republican Senators Jim DeMint, Jeff Sessions, Saxby Chambliss, David Vitter, Jim Bunning and Richard Burr, Mr. Coburn has signed a hold letter – a filibustering technique – that has indefinitely delayed discussion, let alone a vote, on a laudable $50 billion bill for the prevention of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
The bill, known as the Lantos-Hyde Act, has amassed an overwhelming amount of bipartisan support and is part of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). It passed in the House by a vote of 308 to 116 on June 2 and has remained idle in the Senate ever since.
In the mean time, at least 216,000 people have died from malaria, 324,000 people from tuberculosis and 432,000 people from HIV/AIDS.
Scientific research has already made marked advancements in recent years on each of these fronts: since 2003 the cost of antiretroviral drugs has been cut by more than half, a promising tuberculosis vaccine undergoing tests in South Africa has been scheduled for product license by 2010, and, in our field, the fungus Beauveria bassiana, which has a sweet tooth for mosquitoes, has proven to reduce malaria transmission by 98 percent. Thus, it only seems fitting to continue this progress by funding a cost-effective transition from developing technology in the lab to distributing affordable treatment to disease-ridden areas sympatric with human existence.
In a poignant Washington Post column last month, former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson reproached the "Coburn Seven" for stagnating the bill. And in response, a 14-member-strong Republican coalition supporting the bill, led by Senators Richard Lugar and John Sununu, sent a letter to Senate leaders urging them to bring the bill to a vote.
If the bill passes, not only would the money go toward potentially treating 3 million people who currently have AIDS and prevent 12 million people from developing AIDS – the treatment and prevention objectives of Lantos-Hyde – but it would also care for 5 million orphans who become victims of their parents’ fatal illness.
It is imperative that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell bring this bill to a vote before the July 4 congressional recess in lieu of perfidiously calculating its political repercussions.
According to a Gallup poll released on the day the bill made it through the House, only 32 percent of the world approves of the "job performance of the leadership of the U.S." The United States will squander an opportunity to regain its moral footing in a race back into favor with the world if President Bush attends the G-8 summit on July 4 without the political muscle of the Lantos-Hyde bill.
With the money consumed by the Iraq War over the past two and a half months, half of the Lantos-Hyde Act could have already been funded. The Coburn Seven, several of whom are part of the John McCain-led Fiscal Watch team, must recognize, as Sen. Sununu already has, that Lantos-Hyde is a fiscally responsible piece of legislation.
Their objections principally concern "irresponsible spending" via "mission creep." In other words, they oppose "food, water, treatment of other infectious diseases, gender empowerment programs" and "poverty alleviation programs" as preventive measures.
It does not take a scientist to conclude that prevention does not merely encompass illness treatment, and Sen. Coburn is a medical doctor. Yet, against professional opinion, he insists that much of the $50 billion will "get consumed by those wanting to help people with HIV" and that the reauthorization should continue the requirement that 55 percent of the appropriation be spent solely on treatment and drugs. Both the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine and the Government Accountability Office discredit the 55 percent requirement as too inflexible.
The current bill authorizing PEPFAR back in 2003 is set to expire in September. If the bill does not pass before the Congress adjourns for the summer, it is likely that the bill will not be passed this year and that hundreds of thousands more lives will end at the hands of a killer that lacks our cognitive capacity.
With more than the 60 votes assured to override a filibuster and the President’s support, it is perplexing as to why this necessary bill is being paused at all.