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Note: This document is from the archive of the Africa Policy E-Journal, published
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USA/Africa: Urgent Senate Action
USA/Africa: Urgent Senate Action
Date distributed (ymd): 010709
Document reposted by APIC
Africa Policy Electronic Distribution List: an information
service provided by AFRICA ACTION (incorporating the Africa
Policy Information Center, The Africa Fund, and the American
Committee on Africa). Find more information for action for
Africa at http://www.africapolicy.org
+++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
Region: Continent-Wide
Issue Areas: +US policy focus+
SUMMARY CONTENTS:
This posting contains an urgent action alert, for U.S. residents,
with information from Health Gap International, for support of an
amendment transferring $593 million in the supplemental
appropriations bill FOR THIS YEAR'S BUDGET from the failed Osprey
Helicopter to the Global Health Fund. This amendment may be acted
on in the next 48 hours. Calls to Senate offices could make a real
difference in its chances of success.
[Note: This posting, as particularly applicable for US residents,
is being distributed only to the addresses on the Africa Policy
Electronic Distribution List that are identifiable as on
US-based host computers. It is not possible to filter by e-mail
address non-US residents with addresses on such computer hosts as
compuserve.com and other US-registered computer systems. If you are
not in the U.S. and are not a U.S. citizen, please forward this to
those of your U.S. contacts for whom you think it would be
appropriate.]
+++++++++++++++++end profile++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From: Paul Davis <pdavis@CritPath.Org>
To: Multiple recipients of list <healthgap@CritPath.Org>
Paul Davis
pdavis@critpath.org
Health GAP Coalition
ACT UP Philadelphia
+1.215.474.6886 direct tel. +1.215.474.4793
fax +1.215.731.1844 ACT UP
URGENT:
Calls needed NOW! Amendment for FY 01 $ for Global AIDS
Senator Feingold, D-Wisconin, this morning (Monday, 9 July)
introduced an amendment to the supplemental appropriations bill
that would move $593 million from the Osprey Helicopter to the
Global Fund.
Calls are needed NOW.
. Senate floor debate tomorrow (Tuesday)
. Vote Wednesday (probably)
Targets are listed at the end of this message.
202.224.3121: Congressional Switchboard (will connect you to your
senators, even if you don't know their names. Ask for the person
who deals with "funds to fight the global AIDS crisis" (you could
get an AIDS/health, international affairs, or appropriations/budget
person).
[For more information on communicating with members of Congress
see http://thomas.loc.gov/tfaqs/02.htm]
Tell them it is urgent to support the Feingold Amendment to the
Adminstration's supplemental budget request for $593 million. Tell
them you would support much higher levels now and in the future.
(groups are asking for $1-7 billion for the global fund for FY 02).
Funds released through a supplemental budget request puts real
money on the table now. Current budget authorization fights are
more about messages and symbolic stances. Current appropriation
negotiations are for NEXT year's budget (FY 2002).
The Bush Admin's $18 billion supplemental budget request being
voted on by the Senate this week is almost entirely for military
spending.
The Feingold money is 'budget neutral,' fully offset by a smallish
adjustment to the Navy's $40 billion exploding helicopter program.
The $593 comes from the Osprey procurement fund. Enough money is
left to keep the Osprey production line open. The amendment
reassigns some of the money for acquiring new Osprey craft to the
Global AIDS and Health Fund.
New money for the global fund would be a huge boost to get it
funded at meaningful levels.
Currently, the Bush Administration's paltry contribution to the
Global Fund derailed a tremendous amount of momentum, serving to
lower the contributions of many donors while positioning the
President as a leader. The President's $200 million is entirely
reassigned money from existing accounts to be disbursed in 2002.
If we can get more serious money on the table in the Senate, it
will serve to change the nature and tone of the discussion during
the G8 Summit in Genoa towards a meaningful response to the global
AIDS catastrophe. $593 million for FY01 can shift debate away from
spurious arguments about prevention versus treatment, or whether
the global fund should be used to purchase watches.
TARGETS:
This is moving quickly and has not been vetted with the Democratic
leadership yet. To make this a reality, calls will need to go to a
few strategically placed senators, then to as many as possible
individuals, on the committees who will be looked to, then finally
to a few Republicans who could help guard against Ds that would
support the Osprey program.
1. Senators whose vote will be looked to for guidance
Daschle, IA
Kennedy MA
Frist, TN
Bayh, IN
Leahy VT
Chaffee, RI
Helms, NC
Kerry, MA
2. Democratic Appropriators
Robert Byrd, WV
Daniel Inouye, HI
Frist, TN
Hollings, SC
Patrick Leahy, VT
Tom Harkin, IA
Barbara Mikulski, MD
Harry Reid, NV
Herb Kohl, WI
Patty Murray, WA
Byron Dorgan, NE
Dianne Feinstein, CA
Dick Durbin, IL
Tim Johnson, SD
Mary Landrew, LA
3. Dems on Armed Services Committee:
Carl Levin, MI
Edward Kennedy, MA
Joe Lieberman, CO
Max Cleland, GA
Mary Landrew, LA
Jack Reed, RI
Daniel Akaka, HI
Bill Nelson, FL
Ben Nelson NE
Jean Carnahan, MO
Mark Dayton, Minnesota
4. The handful of moderate Repubs
Olympia Snow, MA
Lincoln Chaffee, RI
Bob Smith, NH
Arlen Specter, PA
From: Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>
To: Multiple recipients of list <healthgap@CritPath.Org>
The text of the Feingold amendment to increase funding for the
Global Fund follows below. It takes money from funding for the
Osprey helicopter for FY 2001 only; under the amendment, production
could resume in FY 2002.
Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>
Essential Information
P.O. Box 19405, Washington, DC 20036, USA
Tel: 1-202-387-8030
Fax: 1-202-234-5176
http://www.essential.org
AMENDMENT NO._863 Calendar No._____
Purpose: To increase the amount provided to combat HIV/AIDS,
malaria, and tuberculosis, and to offset that increase by
rescinding amounts appropriated to the Navy for the V-22 Osprey
aircraft program.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES - 107th Cong., 1st Sess.
S. 1077
Making supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending
September 30, 2001, and for other purposes.
AMENDMENT intended to be proposed by Mr. FEINGOLD
Viz:
On page 28, beginning on line 9, strike "100,000,000," and all that
follows through line 13, and insert the following: "693,000,000, to
remain available until expended:
Provided, That this amount may be made available, notwithstanding
any other provision of law, for a United States contribution to a
global trust fund to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis:
Provided, further, That the entire amount made available under this
heading is designated by the Congress an emergency requirement
pursuant to section 251(b)(2)(A) of the Balanced Budget and
Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, as amended:
Provided further, That the entire amount under this heading shall
be available only to the extent that an official budget request for
that specific dollar amount that includes the designation of the
entire amount of the request as an emergency requirement as defined
in the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985,
as amended, is transmitted by the President to the Congress:
Provided further, That the total amount of the rescission for
`Aircraft Procurement, Navy, 2001/2003' under section 1204 is
hereby increased by $594,000,000.".
This material is being reposted for wider distribution by
Africa Action (incorporating the Africa Policy Information
Center, The Africa Fund, and the American Committee on Africa).
Africa Action's information services provide accessible
information and analysis in order to promote U.S. and
international policies toward Africa that advance economic,
political and social justice and the full spectrum of human rights.
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