Senate Should Move 'Quickly' To Reauthorize PEPFAR Ahead Of G8 Summit, Editorial Says

Main Category: HIV / AIDS
Also Included In: Conferences
Article Date: 17 Apr 2008 - 7:00 PDT

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The Senate "should get on board" with the House in passing legislation to reauthorize the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief before President Bush attends the Group of Eight industrialized nations summit this summer, a Dallas Morning News editorial says (Dallas Morning News, 4/14). The House version of the reauthorization bill (HR 5501) was approved earlier this month. The Senate version of the bill (S 2731) passed the Foreign Relations Committee in March and is awaiting floor consideration (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 4/4). However, a "crowded calendar" might prevent senators from addressing this measure before summer starts, the editorial says.

Bush "has pressed allies" for increased international funding for HIV/AIDS, so for him to attend the summit without "renewed commitment" to PEPFAR "would undermine his chance to rally partners in Europe and elsewhere," according to the News. The HIV/AIDS pandemic presents a "compelling humanitarian imperative," and the disease's spread constitutes "one of the world's most destabilizing forces," the editorial says, concluding that "[f]or the sake" of people in Africa and "global stability, the Senate needs to quickly pass this measure" (Dallas Morning News, 4/14).

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