Seat of Power (and Hope)

I'd love to tell you about the magnificent animals I saw yesterday here in Kenya. It would be a pleasure to describe in flowing detail the spectacular Kenyan flowers that are visible from my hotel room window. It would be a fun diversion to describe in words the sounds of the amazing birds that I can hear beginning just as the first shards of sunlight pierce the night sky. But these things will have to wait for another day.

Today I want to share with you a concern focused not on Kenya but on the US Congress. It seems that a few senators are blocking action on a new bill that would increase significantly funding to address AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis around the world.

Many people are alive today because of the people of the United States. The first five years of President Bush's President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) allowed for US$19 billion to be spent in some of the world's most in-need locations. The new funding initiative would increase funding over the next five years to US$50 billion.

The US House of Representatives passed its version of the bill in April. Sadly, the Senate's efforts are being dogged by procedural uncertainties. Seven Senators--yes, just seven people--have placed a stop on the bill unless and until their concerns. This blockade group, helmed by Senator Tom Coburn of my home state of Oklahoma, contend that the spending level is irresponsible.

Irresponsible? Even if the $50 billion were to be matched or exceeded by other developed nations, it would still not properly finance the treatment and prevention programs required to halt the AIDS epidemic. But we can't throw up our hands and simply walk away.

In a couple of recent conversations with friends, the phrase "charity begins at home" has presented itself. "We have people suffering right here at home," they say. True enough. But we also have effective programs in place to deal with that suffering. I would never suggest that the suffering of one person, or group of people, is any less or more than another. But one need travel less than two miles from my hotel in Nairobi to get a clear picture of what widespread suffering entails.

From the slums of the capitol city here to the remote villages, families are torn apart by AIDS. Certainly CMMB programs, and those of other NGOs, are making a vast difference here and around the world. But it would be a violation of everything this is good and right and moral to allow seven people to block critical funding to continue these efforts.

True, the $50 billion is significantly more than the Bush administration has requested. But it will take that and even more to meet the needs of the world's poorest people infected with and affected by HIV and AIDS.

I'll be back in the US in a couple of weeks. And once I'm back I will make this offer to any of the seven Senators blocking movement of this funding initiative: I will personally accompany you to Kenya or Zambia or Haiti to introduce you to children, women, and men who are alive today because of the generosity of the American people. And while we are there, I'll show you the millions of reasons to move swiftly on this funding. Each one of those reasons has a name and a face.

Please, let me show you first hand why we must do everything in our power as the most prosperous nation on Earth to help those most in need. US dollars translate into hope. Hope translates into health. Health translates into self sufficiency.

Charity may begin at home, but it cannot stop there.