III 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. RES. 461 

Commemorating and supporting the goals of World AIDS Day. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

NOVEMBER 30, 2021 

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

resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

RESOLUTION 

Commemorating and supporting the goals of World AIDS 

Day. 

Whereas, as of the end of 2020, an estimated 37,700,000 

people were living with human immunodeficiency virus 

(HIV) or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), 

including 1,720,000 children; 

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

with AIDS have died since the beginning of the HIV epidemic, including nearly 16,000 deaths among people with 

diagnosed HIV in 2019, with the disease disproportionately affecting communities of color; 

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

Whereas communities of color are disproportionately affected 

by HIV in the United States; 


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•SRES 461 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 

(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 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 United States President’s Emergency Plan for 

AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program remains the largest 

commitment in history by any country to combat a single 

disease; 

Whereas, as of 2020, PEPFAR has supported treatment for 

approximately 17,200,000 people, and has enabled 

2,800,000 infants of mothers living with HIV to be born 

HIV-free; 


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•SRES 461 IS 

Whereas, in fiscal year 2020, PEPFAR directly supported 

HIV testing and counseling for 50,000,000 people; 

Whereas the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and 

Malaria was launched in 2002, and, as of 2020, has 

helped provide antiretroviral therapy to approximately 

21,900,000 people living with HIV/AIDS and to 686,000 

pregnant women to prevent the transmission of HIV/ 

AIDS to their children, saving an estimated 44,000,000 

lives; 

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 30-percent reduction in new HIV infections, an over 50-percent reduction 

in new HIV infections among children, and an over 45- 

percent reduction in the number of AIDS-related deaths 

between 2010 and 2020; 

Whereas approximately 27,500,000 people had access to 

antiretroviral therapy in 2020, 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 461 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 1,500,000 new HIV infections in 2020 globally, structural barriers continue to 

make testing and treatment programs inaccessible to 

highly vulnerable populations, and an estimated 

6,100,000 people living with HIV globally still do not 

know their HIV status; 

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

in the United States in 2018 and 14 percent of the 

1,200,000 people 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 States bear the greatest burden of HIV in 

the United States, accounting for 51 percent of new infections in 2018; 

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 infections among people 

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

been low historically and have limited services for HIV 


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•SRES 461 IS 

prevention and treatment and substance use disorder 

treatment; 

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 2021, commemorations for World AIDS Day recognize the need for ‘‘Ending the HIV Epidemic: Equitable Access, Everyone’s Voice’’: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) supports the goals and ideals of World 

3 AIDS Day, including the goal to achieve zero new 

4 HIV infections, zero discrimination, and zero AIDS5 related deaths; 

6 (2) commends the efforts and achievements in 

7 combating HIV/AIDS through the Ryan White HIV/ 

8 AIDS Treatment Extension Act, the Minority HIV/ 

9 AIDS Initiative, the Centers for Disease Control and 

10 Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the 

11 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Ad12 ministration, the Office of Minority Health, and the 

13 Office of the Secretary of Health and Human Serv14 ices; 

15 (3) commends the efforts and achievements in 

16 combating HIV/AIDS made by PEPFAR, the Global 


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•SRES 461 IS 

1 Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and 

2 the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS; 

3 (4) supports efforts to end the HIV epidemic in 

4 the United States and around the world by 2030; 

5 (5) supports continued funding for prevention, 

6 care, and treatment services, and research programs 

7 for communities impacted by HIV and people living 

8 with HIV in the United States and globally; 

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

10 generation is achievable, rapid action by all countries 

11 toward further expansion and scale-up of 

12 antiretroviral treatment programs, including efforts 

13 to reduce disparities and improve access for children 

14 to life saving medications; 

15 (7) encourages the scaling up of comprehensive 

16 prevention services, including biomedical and struc17 tural interventions, to ensure inclusive access to pro18 grams and appropriate protections for all people at 

19 risk of contracting HIV, especially in communities 

20 disproportionately impacted; 

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

22 vulnerabilities of women and girls, including women 

23 and girls at risk for or who have survived violence 

24 or faced discrimination as a result of the disease; 


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•SRES 461 IS 

1 (9) supports continued leadership by the United 

2 States in domestic, bilateral, multilateral, and pri3 vate sector efforts to fight HIV; 

4 (10) encourages input from civil society in the 

5 development and implementation of domestic and 

6 global HIV policies and programs that guide the re7 sponse; 

8 (11) encourages and supports greater degrees 

9 of ownership and shared responsibility by developing 

10 countries in order to ensure the sustainability of the 

11 domestic responses to HIV/AIDS by those countries; 

12 and 

13 (12) urges other members of the international 

14 community to sustain and scale up their support for 

15 and financial contributions to efforts around the 

16 world to combat HIV. 

Æ 


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