IV 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 1605 

Supporting the goals of World AIDS Day. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

DECEMBER 3, 2024 

Ms. LEE of California (for herself, Mrs. CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK, Mr. 

MCGOVERN, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Ms. 

MOORE of Wisconsin, Ms. BARRAGA ́N, Ms. MCCLELLAN, Ms. SEWELL, 

Mr. FITZPATRICK, Mr. COHEN, Ms. BALINT, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Mrs. 

MCIVER, Ms. NORTON, Ms. KELLY of Illinois, Ms. TLAIB, Ms. WILSON

of Florida, Mr. KENNEDY, Mr. VARGAS, Mr. SWALWELL, and Mr. CARSON) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on 

Foreign Affairs, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

RESOLUTION 

Supporting the goals of World AIDS Day. 

Whereas, as of the end of 2023, an estimated 39,900,000 

people were living with human immunodeficiency virus 

(HIV) or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), 

including 1,400,000 children; 

Whereas, in the United States, more than 790,000 people 

with AIDS have died since the beginning of the HIV epidemic, including over 19,000 deaths among people with 

diagnosed HIV in 2022, with the disease disproportionately affecting communities of color; 


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Whereas, in 2022, over 37,000 people became newly diagnosed with HIV in the United States; 

Whereas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention (‘‘CDC’’), Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and other Pacific Islanders are 

disproportionately affected by HIV in the United States; 

Whereas, in order to address the HIV epidemic in the United 

States, on August 18, 1990, Congress enacted the Ryan 

White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act of 

1990 (Public Law 101–381; commonly referred to as the 

‘‘Ryan White CARE Act’’) to provide primary medical 

care and essential support services for people living with 

HIV who are uninsured or underinsured; 

Whereas the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program provides services and support for over half of all people diagnosed with 

HIV in the United States; 

Whereas to further focus attention on the HIV/AIDS epidemic among minority communities in the United States, 

in 1998, the Minority AIDS Initiative was established to 

provide funds to State and local institutions and organizations to best serve the needs of racial and ethnic minorities living with HIV; 

Whereas, since 2016, the historic U=U 

(Undetectable=Untransmittable) movement has positively 

impacted the lives of people living with HIV by promoting the scientific facts; 

Whereas when people living with HIV are on treatment and 

have an undetectable viral load, they protect their own 

health and they cannot transmit HIV; 


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Whereas, in 2022, the Federal Government across sectors 

(including the White House, the Department of Health 

and Human Services, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (‘‘CDC’’)) has publicly announced 

support for the U=U movement in hopes of positively 

changing the trajectory of HIV in the United States; 

Whereas the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 

established a global target to end AIDS as a public 

health threat by 2030; 

Whereas, in order to further address the global HIV/AIDS 

epidemic, in 2003, Congress and the White House created the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief 

(PEPFAR); 

Whereas the PEPFAR program remains the largest commitment in history by any country to combat a single disease; 

Whereas 25,000,000 lives have been saved through PEPFAR; 

Whereas, as of September 30, 2023, PEPFAR has supported 

treatment for approximately 20,000,000 people, and has 

enabled 5,500,000 infants of mothers living with HIV to 

be born HIV-free; 

Whereas, in fiscal year 2023, PEPFAR directly supported 

HIV testing and counseling for 71,000 people; 

Whereas sustained bipartisan commitment is essential for 

PEPFAR to continue saving lives, preventing new HIV 

infections, and accelerating progress toward controlling 

the global HIV/AIDS pandemic; 

Whereas the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and 

Malaria, launched in 2002, has helped provide 

antiretroviral therapy to approximately 25,000,000 people living with HIV/AIDS and to 695,000 pregnant 


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women to prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS to their 

children, saving an estimated 65,000,000 lives, as of 

2023; 

Whereas the United States is the largest donor to the Global 

Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and 

every $1 contributed by the United States leverages an 

additional $2 from other donors, as required by law; 

Whereas considerable progress has been made in the fight 

against HIV/AIDS, including a nearly 40-percent reduction in new HIV transmissions, a 60-percent reduction in 

new HIV transmissions among children, and a reduction 

of over 50 percent in the number of AIDS-related deaths 

between 2010 and 2023; 

Whereas, approximately 30,700,000 people had access to 

antiretroviral therapy in 2023, compared to only 

7,800,000 people who had access to such therapy in 

2010; 

Whereas research funded by the National Institutes of Health 

found not only that HIV treatment saves the lives of people living with HIV, but people living with HIV on effective antiretroviral therapy and who are durably virally 

suppressed cannot sexually transmit HIV, proving that 

HIV treatment is prevention; 

Whereas it is estimated that, without treatment, half of all 

infants living with HIV will die before their second birthday; 

Whereas children living with HIV are significantly less likely 

than adults to know their HIV status and be accessing 

life-saving treatment; 

Whereas the CDC states that preexposure prophylaxis 

(PrEP) reduces HIV transmission through sexual contact 


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by 99 percent when taken as prescribed, proving that 

PrEP is critical for HIV prevention; 

Whereas nearly 4,000,000 people globally had started taking 

PrEP by the end of 2022; 

Whereas an estimated 1,200,000 people in the United States 

could benefit from access to PrEP in 2024 and there are 

major disparities in access based on race and ethnicity; 

Whereas the CDC began a pilot PrEP Program in 5 jurisdictions in 2024 and the Administration has called for institution of a National PrEP Program to further the goal 

of ending the HIV epidemic by 2030; 

Whereas, despite the remarkable progress in combating HIV, 

significant challenges remain; 

Whereas there were approximately 1,300,000 new HIV diagnoses in 2023 globally, structural barriers continue to 

make testing and treatment programs inaccessible to 

highly vulnerable populations, and an estimated 

5,400,000 people living with HIV globally still do not 

know their HIV status; 

Whereas the CDC reports that over 35,000 people were diagnosed with HIV in the United States in 2021, and 13 

percent of the 1,200,000 people in the United States living with HIV are not aware of their HIV status; 

Whereas the CDC has found that men who have sex with 

men, particularly young Black Americans and Hispanics, 

are the population most affected by HIV in the United 

States; 

Whereas southern areas of the United States bear the greatest burden of HIV, accounting for 52 percent of new infections in 2021; 


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Whereas globally transgender feminine individuals are 66 

times more likely and transgender masculine individuals 

are 6.8 times more likely to be diagnosed with HIV compared to the general adult population; 

Whereas one in two people living with HIV in the United 

States is over 50; 

Whereas people living with HIV are frequently susceptible to 

other infections, such as hepatitis B and C and tuberculosis; 

Whereas the opioid and heroin epidemics have led to increased numbers of new HIV transmissions among people 

who inject drugs, and the crisis has disproportionately affected nonurban areas, where HIV prevalence rates have 

been low historically and there are limited services for 

HIV prevention, treatment, and substance use disorder 

treatment; 

Whereas harm reduction interventions such as syringe services programs have been shown to help prevent HIV 

transmission and lower rates of overdose; 

Whereas December 1 of each year is internationally recognized as ‘‘World AIDS Day’’; 

Whereas the PEPFAR program, an initiative launched by 

President George W. Bush with bipartisan support has 

for over two decades served as the primary policy instrument of the United States to address HIV/AIDS globally; 

and 

Whereas, in 2024, commemorations for World AIDS Day recognize the essential role of communities in the global 

HIV/AIDS response: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 


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1 (1) encourages people around the world to work 

2 to achieve the goal of zero new HIV transmissions, 

3 zero discrimination, and zero AIDS-related deaths 

4 by 2030 and specifically to achieve the bipartisan 

5 goal of ending the HIV epidemic in the United 

6 States and around the world; 

7 (2) encourages Federal, State, and local govern8 ments, including their public health agencies, and 

9 community-based organizations to share and dis10 seminate U=U (Undetectable equals 

11 Untransmittable) information and preexposure pro12 phylaxis information; 

13 (3) commends the efforts and achievements in 

14 combating HIV/AIDS through the Ryan White HIV/ 

15 AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009 (Public 

16 Law 111–87), the Minority HIV/AIDS Initiative, 

17 the Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS 

18 Program, the Centers for Disease Control and Pre19 vention, the National Institutes of Health, the Sub20 stance Abuse and Mental Health Services Adminis21 tration, the Office of Minority Health, and the Of22 fice of the Secretary of Health and Human Services; 

23 (4) commends the efforts and achievements in 

24 combating HIV/AIDS made by the President’s 

25 Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (‘‘PEPFAR’’), the 


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1 Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Ma2 laria, and the Joint United Nations Programme on 

3 HIV/AIDS; 

4 (5) supports robust funding for prevention, 

5 care, and treatment services, and research programs 

6 for communities impacted by HIV and people living 

7 with HIV in the United States and globally; 

8 (6) urges, in order to ensure that an AIDS-free 

9 generation is achievable, rapid action by all countries 

10 toward further expansion and scale-up of testing and 

11 antiretroviral treatment programs, including efforts 

12 to reduce growing disparities and improve access for 

13 children to life-saving medications; 

14 (7) encourages the scaling up of comprehensive 

15 prevention services, including biomedical and struc16 tural interventions and a National PrEP Program, 

17 to ensure inclusive access to programs and appro18 priate resources for all people at risk of contracting 

19 HIV, especially in communities disproportionately 

20 impacted as these groups make up the majority of 

21 new HIV diagnoses in the United States and preven22 tion efforts should specifically reach these groups; 

23 (8) calls for greater focus on the HIV-related 

24 vulnerabilities of women and girls, including women 

25 and girls at risk for or who have survived violence 


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1 or faced discrimination as a result of the disease, 

2 such as through the implementation of layered pre3 vention programming through PEPFAR’s DREAMS 

4 (Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, 

5 Mentored, and Safe) public-private partnership to 

6 reduce structural and individual vulnerabilities to 

7 HIV; 

8 (9) supports continued leadership by the United 

9 States in domestic, bilateral, multilateral, and pri10 vate sector efforts to fight HIV; 

11 (10) encourages input from civil society in the 

12 development and implementation of domestic and 

13 global HIV policies and programs that guide the re14 sponse with specific measures for transparency and 

15 accountability; 

16 (11) encourages and supports greater degrees 

17 of ownership and shared responsibility by developing 

18 countries in order to ensure the sustainability of the 

19 domestic responses to HIV by those countries; and 

20 (12) urges other members of the international 

21 community to sustain and scale up their support for 

22 and financial contributions to efforts around the 

23 world to combat HIV. 

Æ 


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