Colluquy
Global AIDS Bill and the Microbicide Colloquy
In the wee hours of May 16, 2003, the US Senate passed the "United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Act of 2003" (HR 1298). This five-year, US $15 billion bill, commonly known as the Global AIDS Act, was signed into law by President Bush on May 27 and constitutes the largest single monetary commitment the US has ever made to deal with the AIDS pandemic in Africa.
Despite the unprecedented nature of this commitment, however, the Act also contains some onerous provisions and omissions, including:
a provision allocating one-third of prevention funding for "abstinence only" programs and
a very limited contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria ($1 billion in FY 2004).
Microbicide advocates had been working with Senator Corzine's office (D-NJ) on an amendemnt that would have strengthened the microbicides language in the bill. Because all amendments to the bill (but one) were being defeated regardless of merit, we ended up using a different tactic. Senator Corzine engaged Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist in a floor "colloquy" on the issue of microbicide research and development, and specifically on the need for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to establish a branch dedicated to microbicide research and development within the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases -- thus creating a single line of administrative accountability and funding coordination.
Click here to read more about the success of this exciting legislative maneuver and to read the transcript of the Colloquy.