I 
110TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1567 
To amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to provide increased assistance 
for the prevention, treatment, and control of tuberculosis, and for other 
purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 19, 2007 
Mr. ENGEL (for himself, Mrs. WILSON of New Mexico, Mr. SMITH of Wash-
ington, and Mr. PAYNE) introduced the following bill; which was referred 
to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee 
on Energy and Commerce, for a period to be subsequently determined by 
the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall with-
in the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to provide 
increased assistance for the prevention, treatment, and 
control of tuberculosis, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Stop Tuberculosis 
(TB) Now Act of 2007’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
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(1) Tuberculosis is one of the greatest infec-
tious causes of death of adults worldwide, killing 1.6 
million people per year—one person every 15 sec-
onds. 
(2) One-third of the world’s population is in-
fected with the tuberculosis bacterium and an esti-
mated 8.8 million individuals develop active tuber-
culosis each year. 
(3) Tuberculosis is the leading infectious killer 
among individuals who are HIV-positive due to their 
weakened immune systems, and it is estimated that 
one-third of people with HIV infection have tuber-
culosis. 
(4) Today, tuberculosis is a leading killer of 
women of reproductive age. 
(5) There are 22 countries that account for 80 
percent of the world’s burden of tuberculosis. The 
People’s Republic of China and India account for 36 
percent of all estimated new tuberculosis cases each 
year. 
(6) Driven by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, inci-
dence rates of tuberculosis in Africa have more than 
doubled on average since 1990, making it the only 
region in the world in which tuberculosis rates are 
not currently stabilized or declining. The problem is 
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so pervasive that in August 2005, African Health 
Ministers and the World Health Organization 
(WHO) declared tuberculosis to be an emergency in 
Africa. 
(7) The wide extent of drug resistance, includ-
ing both multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR– 
TB) and extensively drug resistant tuberculosis 
(XDR–TB), represents both a critical challenge to 
the global control of tuberculosis and a serious 
worldwide public health threat. XDR–TB, which is 
characterized as being MDR–TB with additional re-
sistance to multiple second-line anti-tuberculosis 
drugs, is associated with worst treatment outcomes 
of any form of tuberculosis. XDR–TB is converging 
with the HIV epidemic, undermining gains in HIV 
prevention and treatment programs and requires ur-
gent interventions. Drug resistance surveillance re-
ports have confirmed the serious scale and spread of 
tuberculosis with XDR–TB strains confirmed on six 
continents. Demonstrating the lethality of XDR–TB, 
an initial outbreak in Tugela Ferry, South Africa 
killed 52 of 53 patients with hundreds more cases 
reported since. Of the world’s regions, sub-Saharan 
Africa faces the greatest gap in capacity to prevent, 
find, and treat XDR–TB. 
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(8) With more than 50 percent of tuberculosis 
cases in the United States attributable to foreign- 
born individuals and with the increase in inter-
national travel, commerce, and migration, elimi-
nation of tuberculosis in the United States depends 
on efforts to control the disease in developing coun-
tries. Recent research has shown that to invest in 
tuberculosis control abroad, where treatment and 
program costs are significantly cheaper than in the 
United States, would be a cost-effective strategy to 
reduce tuberculosis-related morbidity and mortality 
domestically. 
(9) The threat that tuberculosis poses for 
Americans derives from the global spread of tuber-
culosis and the emergence and spread of strains of 
multi-drug resistant tuberculosis and extensively 
drug resistant tuberculosis, which are far more 
deadly, and more difficult and costly to treat. 
(10) DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment 
Short-course) is one of the most cost-effective health 
interventions available today and is a core compo-
nent of the new Stop TB Strategy. 
(11) The Stop TB Strategy, developed by the 
World Health Organization, builds on the success of 
DOTS and ongoing challenges so as to serve all 
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those in need and reach targets for prevalence, mor-
tality, and incidence reduction. The Stop TB Strat-
egy includes six components: 
(A) Pursuing high-quality expansion and 
enhancement of DOTS coverage. 
(B) Implementing tuberculosis and HIV 
collaborative activities, preventing and control-
ling multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, and ad-
dressing other special challenges. 
(C) Contributing to the strengthening of 
health systems. 
(D) Engaging all health care providers, in-
cluding promotion of the International Stand-
ards for Tuberculosis Care. 
(E) Empowering individuals with tuber-
culosis and communities. 
(F) Enabling and promoting research to 
develop new diagnostics, drugs, vaccines, and 
program-based operational research relating to 
tuberculosis. 
(12) The Global Plan to Stop TB 2006–2015: 
Actions for Life is a comprehensive plan developed 
by the Stop TB Partnership that sets out the ac-
tions necessary to achieve the millennium develop-
ment goal of cutting tuberculosis deaths and disease 
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