A Billion Dollars At Stake

In December, Congressional leadership made it clear that they intended to extend the budget "continuing resolution" (CR) for the entire year. This means that U.S. federal funding will remain at 2006 levels for the 2007 fiscal year - and that the global poverty movement will not receive a billion dollars in additional funding.

The majority of this funding, approximately $900 million, was set aside to fund global AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria programs. According to Mark Dybul of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator in a UPI story from Friday:

"If that money is not appropriated, the program, which provides treatment for 822,000 AIDS patients in 15 focus countries, will have to stop enrolling new individuals by February...If the shortfall is not addressed, it could lead to the deaths of 110,000 to 175,000 HIV-infected individuals...

"You can't just start up again in 2008 and bring them back. They're gone."

Additionally, pulling this expected increase means global partners will lose trust in the U.S. government. "The chilling effect long-term on scale-up" says Dybul "is almost beyond comprehension."

Thankfully, there is still a limited amount of funds available for the 2007 budget, and our leaders in Congress are tasked with doling them out. Senators Durbin and Brownback and Representatives Lee and Shays have drafted "Dear Colleague" letters, urging Congressional leadership to use as much of the money as possible to fund these critical programs.

Ultimately, the decision Congress makes will be measured in lives lost and lives saved.

Today the ONE Campaign is asking people to make sure their representatives know that we don't want to lose a year's worth of progress and momentum on the most difficult challenges our world faces. Contact your representatives now and tell them to fund the fight against extreme poverty. We need them to sign the "Dear Colleague" letter today.

Virginia Simmons, ONE.org
TheONEBlog.org