June 27, 2008
ZEROES TO HEROES
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Protester gives PEPFAR props to Reid |
As the Update went to press Thursday, the battle over reauthorizing the $50 billion President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) was still very much in flux. The latest news from AP/Google.com was that a "tentative agreement" between Democrat and Republican leaders had beeen reached. Word of that compromise came just hours before hundreds of AIDS activists were hitting Capitol Hill in a demo thanking some Senate leaders for taking action on the bill and chiding others for standing in its way.
According to AP/Google.com, the latest PEPFAR agreement would stipulate that over 50 percent of the legislation's funding goes toward treatment—the biggest bee in the bonnet of the seven Senate Republicans, led by Tom Coburn, blocking reauthorization. Hill insiders also say that the compromise language regarding HIV prevention may create significant roadblocks to using PEPFAR money to distribute condoms.
The bill's previous language included a reporting requirement if PEPFAR-funded groups spent less than 50 percent of their prevention funds on abstinence, faithfulness or other behavior programs. The compromise bill may strike the phrase "or other behavior programs" to close what conservatives consider a loophole allowing funds to be used for condom distribution.
"We're not happy with the current legislation," said Katie Smith of ACT UP/Philadelphia, one of the groups that demonstrated both for and against Senate leaders yesterday. "but we want the bill to pass. We'll work like hell to fix it, as we've done since the first PEPFAR passed. And of course we hope that the next president will work with us."
Advocates were particularly keen to get the Senate to take action before President Bush headed to the next Group of Eight nations meeting in Japan, which starts July 7. They say that without an assurance that PEPFAR would be reauthorized, Bush would be unable to push Japan and European nations to contribute their fare share to fighting AIDS globally. Even if the actual PEPFAR reauthorization vote does not happen before the G8 meeting, knowing that the legislation will likely pass might be enough to influence other countries, said Paul Davis of Health GAP. "Scheduling a day for a vote is almost as good as having a vote," he said.
And no matter the final outcome of the last several week's PEPFAR drama, one thing is clear. Pressure from an alliance of fast-working grassroots activists lit a fire under a handful of Senate leaders. For the last several weeks, groups such as Health GAP, Global AIDS Alliance, AIDS Healthcare Foundation on others have been brandishing the threat of a major AIDS demo linking Senate leaders—including Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain—to the preventable HIV infection of millions of people in developing nations if they didn't take on Coburn's conservative crew.
Just a week ago, activists, led by ACT UP Philadelphia and the American Medical Students Association, were still planing to deliver a giant backbone to Sens. Obama, Reid, McConnell and McCain and ask them to "grow a spine". However, the efforts of those Senators and others to get a compromise on PEPFAR earned them a reprieve from the humiliating spine operation. Instead, Obama, Reid, McCain, McConnell, as well as Sens. Joe Biden and Richard Lugar were portrayed as "superheroes" at a demo in Washington, D.C. yesterday. After the demo, attended by some 300 people, activists split into teams to deliver superhero awards to those six Senators. They took funeral wreaths to three "villains": Coburn and Sens. Jim DeMint and David Vitters.
The team dispatched to meet Biden actually ran into him in the hall, where he stopped to chat for five minutes, saying "We're working as hard as we can to get PEPFAR passed." Coburn was not in his office when activists arrived, but his chief of staff engaged them in debate, politely repeating Coburn's talking points about prioritizing treatment. DeMint and Vitters' people said they'd pass the wreaths as well as the protestors sentiments on to their bosses.
The work of the last few weeks recalled another recent major success for some of the same global AIDS warriors: Last October, a planned Halloween demonstration scared Sen. Hilary Clinton into pledging her support for $50 billion over the next five years.
"We still haven't crossed the finish line; nonetheless, it's been incredibly exciting. Reid stood up and has been fighting. He told his colleagues that he'd hold them over the weekend if he had to [to finsih work on PEPFAR]. He definitely found and grew his backbone to say something like that," Smith said.
Despite the fact that he won superhero status yesterday, presidential hopeful McCain doesn't seem all that interested in continuing President Bush's AIDS legacy—his main contribution to settling the PEPFAR dust up was simply signing the the legislation.
"We're lacking the leadership from the Republican side," said David Bryden of the Global AIDS Alliance. "We've seen leadership from Sen. [Dick] Durbin and other Democrats, but McCain and McConnell can reign in their side."
Ironically, as activists were madly scrambling to get PEPFAR reauthorized for Bush's trip to the G8, his spokeswoman, Dana Perino, downplayed the timing. " I don't think that we're putting a deadline on it in terms of the G8. We really want to make sure Congress does this before they leave for their recess in August," she said during Wednesday's press briefing.
Bush may have been taking political cover, but Bryden still doesn't buy it. "If PEPFAR's not signed it means Bush won't be able to go to the G8 summit with the bill in hand. It will be harder for our friends in Japan to be convinced to make a significant investment as well," he said.