III 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. RES. 781 

Supporting the goals of World AIDS Day. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

DECEMBER 1, 2020 

Mr. BOOKER (for himself and Mr. SULLIVAN) submitted the following 

resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

RESOLUTION 

Supporting the goals of World AIDS Day. 

Whereas, as of the end of 2019, an estimated 38,000,000 

people were living with human immunodeficiency virus 

(HIV) or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), 

including 1,800,000 children; 

Whereas, in the United States, more than 770,000 people 

with HIV/AIDS have died since the beginning of the 

HIV/AIDS epidemic, including nearly 16,000 deaths 

among people with diagnosed HIV in 2018, with the disease disproportionately affecting certain populations; 

Whereas each year nearly 40,000 people become newly diagnosed with HIV in the United States; 

Whereas communities of color are disproportionately affected 

by the spread of HIV in the United States; 


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•SRES 781 IS 

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 would benefit from these services; 

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 health care costs and support 

the needs of racial and ethnic minorities living with HIV; 

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, as of 2019, PEPFAR has supported treatment for 

approximately 15,700,000 people, including by providing 

antiretroviral drugs to 2,600,000 pregnant women living 

with HIV to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child during birth; 


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Whereas, in fiscal year 2019, PEPFAR directly supported 

HIV testing and counseling for nearly 79,600,000 people; 

Whereas the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and 

Malaria, launched in 2002, has helped provide 

antiretroviral therapy to approximately 20,100,000 people living with HIV/AIDS and to 718,000 pregnant 

women to prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS to their 

children, saving an estimated 38,000,000 lives, as of 

2019; 

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 23-percent reduction in 

new HIV infections, over a 40-percent reduction in new 

HIV infections among children, and over a 30-percent reduction in the number of AIDS-related deaths between 

2010 and 2019; 

Whereas approximately 25,400,000 people had access to 

antiretroviral therapy in 2019, 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 that HIV treatment not only 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; 


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•SRES 781 IS 

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

infants living with HIV will die before their second birthday; 

Whereas, despite the remarkable progress in combating HIV, 

significant challenges remain; 

Whereas there were approximately 1,700,000 new HIV infections in 2019 globally, structural barriers continue to 

make testing and treatment programs inaccessible to 

highly vulnerable populations, and an estimated 

7,100,000 people living with HIV globally still do not 

know their HIV status; 

Whereas the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that more than 37,000 people were diagnosed with 

HIV in the United States in 2018 and 14 percent of the 

1,200,000 in the United States living with HIV are not 

aware of their HIV status; 

Whereas men who have sex with men (MSM), particularly 

young MSM of color, 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 51 percent of new infections in 2018; 

Whereas people living with HIV are frequently susceptible to 

comorbidities, such as hepatitis B and C and tuberculosis; 

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

who inject drugs; 

Whereas the crisis has disproportionately affected nonurban 

areas, where HIV prevalence rates have been low historiVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:58 Dec 01, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR781.IS SR781

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cally and have limited services for HIV prevention and 

treatment and substance use disorder treatment; 

Whereas, in 2020, the United States hosted the Conference 

of the International AIDS Society, reinforcing the important leadership role the United States plays in ending 

AIDS globally; 

Whereas the COVID–19 pandemic has placed a significant 

burden on the public health systems across the United 

States and the globe; 

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

Whereas, in 2020, commemorations for World AIDS Day recognize the need for ‘‘Global Solidarity, Shared Responsibility’’: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) encourages people around the world to work 

3 to achieve the goal of zero new HIV infections, zero 

4 discrimination, and zero AIDS-related deaths, in 

5 order to end the HIV epidemic in the United States 

6 and around the world by 2030; 

7 (2) commends the efforts and achievements in 

8 combating HIV/AIDS through the Ryan White HIV/ 

9 AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009 (Public 

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

11 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the 

12 National Institutes of Health, the Substance Abuse 

13 and Mental Health Services Administration, the OfVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:58 Dec 01, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR781.IS SR781

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1 fice of Minority Health, and the Office of the Sec2 retary of Health and Human Services; 

3 (3) commends the efforts and achievements in 

4 combating HIV/AIDS made by PEPFAR, the Global 

5 Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and 

6 the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS; 

7 (4) supports continued funding for prevention, 

8 care, and treatment services, and research programs 

9 for communities impacted by HIV and people living 

10 with HIV in the United States and globally; 

11 (5) urges, in order to ensure that an AIDS-free 

12 generation is achievable, rapid action by all countries 

13 toward further expansion and scale-up of 

14 antiretroviral treatment programs, including efforts 

15 to reduce disparities and improve access for children 

16 to life-saving medications; 

17 (6) encourages the scaling up of comprehensive 

18 prevention services, including biomedical and struc19 tural interventions, to ensure inclusive access to pro20 grams and appropriate protections for all people at 

21 risk of contracting HIV, especially in communities 

22 disproportionately impacted; 

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

24 vulnerabilities of women and girls, including women 


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1 and girls at risk for or who have survived violence 

2 or faced discrimination as a result of the disease; 

3 (8) supports continued leadership by the United 

4 States in domestic, bilateral, multilateral, and pri5 vate sector efforts to fight HIV; 

6 (9) encourages input from civil society in the 

7 development and implementation of domestic and 

8 global HIV policies and programs that guide the re9 sponse; 

10 (10) encourages and supports greater degrees 

11 of ownership and shared responsibility by developing 

12 countries in order to ensure the sustainability of the 

13 domestic responses to HIV/AIDS by those countries; 

14 and 

15 (11) urges other members of the international 

16 community to sustain and scale up their support for 

17 and financial contributions to efforts around the 

18 world to combat HIV. 

Æ 


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