By: Rick Santorum
Mission: Impossible” — that’s what many called the effort to combat HIV/AIDS internationally five years ago. They had good reason. Two-thirds of those infected with HIV were in Africa, and the virus was ravaging a continent that was already a “perfect storm” of health and development woes. I’m proud to have worked on the original President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief legislation. Five years later, I’m happy to report that this ongoing mission proved far from impossible. I’m also happy to report that, in a rare expression of bipartisan unity, the House recently reauthorized PEPFAR.
I urge my former Senate colleagues, especially my fellow conservative Republicans, not to drag their feet and jeopardize the program’s reauthorization in this Congress. Delay is not the friend of those suffering abroad or, in fact, of our own nation’s health.
PEPFAR constitutes the largest international health initiative any nation has ever undertaken against a single disease. The progress has been remarkable. As a result of the program’s support for anti-retroviral treatment, more than 1.3 million people in Africa who would otherwise be dead or dying are alive today.
Some balk at PEPFAR’s $50 billion price tag, but this may be some of the best money Congress can spend. It not only addresses a grave humanitarian crisis, it helps protect our nation.
Last November, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made a case for the strategic importance of “soft power” in the war against Islamic fascism. “For all of those brave men and women struggling for a better life, there is — and must be — no stronger ally or advocate than the United States,” he said at Kansas State University. “Let us never forget that our nation remains a beacon of light for those in dark places. And that our responsibilities to the world are not a burden on the people or the soul of this nation. They are, rather, a blessing.”
There’s no better proof of Gates’ hard-nosed case for “soft power” than PEPFAR. By supporting effective methods of prevention of mother-to-child transmission, the program has already kept more than 150,000 children from being born with HIV. Each U.S. dollar spent — and each child — has been a blessing, and these blessings translate into global goodwill.
A 2006 Pew Foundation study found a direct correlation between U.S. aid in response to Indonesia’s tsunami and support for U.S. efforts in the war against radical Islamists. In 2002, 61 percent of Indonesians held a favorable view of the United States. That fell to 15 percent following the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. When Pew next surveyed Indonesia in 2005, however, America’s favorable rating bounced back up to 38 percent. The increase, Pew concludes, was “due in large part to the aid provided by the U.S. after the December 2004 tsunami.”
This is soft power, and it is critical in our difficult times. As Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has said, PEPFAR “strengthens our national security” because AIDS is “destabilizing governments and societies” in whole regions of the world.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, funding since 2001 for military operations and other war-related activities in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the struggle against terrorism will total $752 billion. As Gates suggested, investments in “soft power” — such as PEPFAR — play no less vital a role in our war on terror.
Finally, some of my other former colleagues are concerned with the reauthorization’s focus on social policy. The original PEPFAR legislation protected funding for “Abstinence and Be Faithful” interventions, but that protection has been removed. That’s regrettable, but the fact is that the House and Senate bills would still restore protections to ensure balanced funding for the full range of abstinence-based programs. New Jersey Republican Rep. Chris Smith said the House bill has “balanced funding for sexual transmission prevention, including abstinence.”
The reauthorization actually strengthens the “conscience clause.” It ensures that organizations would not be forced to engage in prevention or treatment methods they object to on moral or religious grounds.
Both bills also maintain existing provisions that bar PEPFAR funds from being used to advocate the legalization of prostitution. They must also certify they have policies opposing prostitution and sex trafficking. Finally, the bills have deleted references in earlier drafts to family planning as a means of HIV prevention and language that could possibly authorize the use of funds for family planning.
Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) told the House that the PEPFAR reauthorization ensures that this foreign aid is administered under “historic, pro-life guidelines” and “vital pro-family provisions.”
Yes, $50 billion is big money. But PEPFAR is now a big part of our foreign policy. It offers people hope instead of hopelessness. It shows the world our heart and that America is a blessing to the oppressed and suffering across the globe. And it needs reauthorizing now.
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