All Candidates for Congress Asked to Sign Pledge on AIDS and Poverty
Denver, Colorado, August 25, 2008—In a luncheon today in Denver, two leading AIDS organizations are recognizing Democratic members of Congress who have shown extraordinary leadership in the fight against HIV/AIDS, both in the US and around the world. Despite significant progress, HIV/AIDS is still killing about 5,500 people a day and infecting another 7,500.
Click here for a video of the event from kaisernetwork.org.
Click here for photos from the event.
"Like an Olympic champion, we must not falter or slow down in this marathon struggle against disease," said Dr. Paul Zeitz, Executive Director of the Global AIDS Alliance Fund. "Congress—and the next President—must show courage and determination to provide the funding and science-based policies needed to maintain US leadership in this fight. In fact, it is very much in the interest of the United States to keep up the fight, yet some candidates, like John McCain, have yet to provide detailed policy statements about this issue."
President Bush deserves great credit for launching and championing the US global AIDS program. Last month Senator Joe Biden led a bipartisan effort in the Senate to refine and expand the program, known as PEPFAR. Thanks to bipartisan cooperation, the second phase of PEPFAR been signed into law, but Congress has yet to provide the necessary funding to implement it.
The sponsor of the event, Global AIDS Alliance Fund, and its key domestic partner, AIDS Action Council, are also challenging candidates for Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, to sign a pledge on AIDS, poverty, and reform of foreign assistance. The pledge is online at http://www.globalaidsalliance.org/index.php/c4_site/interior/congressional_pledge/, and organizers are asking voters to take the pledge to the candidates to urge that they sign.
Senators Barack Obama and Biden signed a nearly identical pledge last year, but Senator McCain has neither responded to the pledge nor issued any detailed position on funding for AIDS and poverty programs. Last year, when asked by The New York Times whether condoms would help stop HIV, McCain replied that he was "stumped" and would ask for help from his advisors. Earlier this month, Rick Warren asked both Obama and McCain whether they would back an emergency plan to help orphaned children, and only Obama signaled his support.
Actor Danny Glover will be the featured speaker at today's event. Also speaking will be Marjorie J. Hill, PhD, CEO of Gay Men's Health Crisis; Dr. Karambu Ringera, Founder and President of International Peace Initiatives in Kenya; Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA); and Sandra Thurman, former Director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy.
A number of members of Congress have confirmed their attendance, including Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Representative Donna Christensen (D-VI), Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), Representative Donald Payne (D-NJ), Representative Jose Serrano (D-NY), Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA), and Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA).
The Global AIDS Alliance Fund was founded in May 2007 to help accelerate an end to global HIV/AIDS and extreme poverty. Since its inception, the Global AIDS Alliance Fund has engaged in a range of grassroots organizing, media outreach, and lobbying efforts to hold the candidates accountable for making concrete pledges to scale up the US response to the pandemic.
