Stop Tuberculosis (TB) Now Act of 2006 - Amends the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to require (currently, authorizes) the President to furnish assistance for tuberculosis (TB) prevention, treatment, and elimination.
Gives priority to activities described in the Stop TB Strategy (as defined by this Act). Revises related fund use provisions.
Authorizes the President, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), to provide increased resources to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Stop Tuberculosis Partnership to improve the capacity of countries with high TB rates and other affected countries to implement the Stop TB Strategy.
Authorizes appropriations for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) TB activities.
[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5022 Introduced in House (IH)]
109th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 5022
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 28, 2006
Mr. Brown of Ohio (for himself, Mr. Leach, Mrs. Wilson of New Mexico,
Mr. Udall of New Mexico, Ms. Lee, Ms. McCollum of Minnesota, Mr.
Berman, Mr. Honda, Mr. McNulty, Mr. Crowley, Mr. McDermott, Ms.
Schakowsky, Mr. Waxman, Mr. George Miller of California, Mr. Inslee,
Mr. Grijalva, Mr. Andrews, and Mr. Holt) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on International Relations, 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 within 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 Representatives 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
2006''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Tuberculosis is one of the greatest infectious causes
of death of adults worldwide, killing nearly 2,000,000 people
per year--one person every 15 seconds.
(2) One-third of the world's population is infected with
the tuberculosis bacterium and an estimated 9,000,000
individuals develop active tuberculosis each year.
(3) Tuberculosis is the leading 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 tuberculosis.
(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 35 percent of all estimated new
tuberculosis cases each year.
(6) Driven by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, incidence 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 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, including multi-
drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), in Eastern Europe and
other parts of the world represents a critical challenge to the
global control of tuberculosis. Drug resistance surveillance
reports have confirmed the serious scale and spread of
tuberculosis in Eastern Europe with tuberculosis strains often
resistant to all first line drugs and also to some second line
drugs.
(8) With more than 50 percent of tuberculosis cases in the
United States attributable to foreign-born individuals and with
the increase in international travel, commerce, and migration,
elimination of tuberculosis in the United States depends on
efforts to control the disease in developing countries. 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 tuberculosis and the
emergence and spread of strains of multi-drug resistant
tuberculosis, which is 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 component 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 those in need and reach targets
for prevalence, mortality, and incidence reduction. The Stop TB
Strategy includes six components:
(A) Pursuing high-quality expansion and enhancement
of DOTS coverage.
(B) Implementing tuberculosis and HIV collaborative
activities, preventing and controlling multi-drug
resistant tuberculosis, and addressing other special
challenges.
(C) Contributing to the strengthening of health
systems.
(D) Engaging all health care providers, including
promotion of the International Standards for
Tuberculosis Care.
(E) Empowering individuals with tuberculosis 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 actions necessary to achieve the millennium
development goal of cutting tuberculosis deaths and disease
burden in half by 2015 and thus eliminate tuberculosis as a
global health problem by 2050.
(13) While innovations such as the Global Tuberculosis Drug
Facility have enabled low-income countries to treat a standard
case of tuberculosis with drugs that cost as little as $16 for
a full six-month course of treatment, there are still millions
of individuals with no access to effective treatment.
(14) As the global resource investment in fighting
tuberculosis increases, partner nations and international
institutions must commit to a corresponding increase in the
technical and program assistance necessary to ensure that the
most effective and efficient tuberculosis treatments are
provided.
(15) The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and
Malaria is an important global partnership established to
combat these three infectious diseases that together kill
millions of people a year. Expansion of effective tuberculosis
treatment programs constitutes a major component of Global Fund
investment, along with integrated efforts to address HIV and
tuberculosis in areas of high prevalence.
(16) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
is actively involved with global tuberculosis control efforts
since the global tuberculosis epidemic directly impacts
tuberculosis in the United States, and because Congress has
strongly urged the CDC each year to increase its involvement
with international tuberculosis control efforts.
(17) The CDC is assisting countries with a high burden of
tuberculosis to--
(A) implement the World Health Organization-
recommended control strategies by improving the
capacity to diagnose and cure individuals with
tuberculosis;
(B) improve the capacity to diagnose, treat, and
prevent tuberculosis in HIV-infected individuals and
individuals with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis; and
(C) conduct programmatically-relevant operational
research to identify and evaluate new diagnostics,
treatment regimes, and interventions to control
tuberculosis.
SEC. 3. ASSISTANCE TO COMBAT TUBERCULOSIS.
(a) Policy.--Section 104B(b) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961
(22 U.S.C. 2151b-3(b)) is amended to read as follows:
``(b) Policy.--It is a major objective of the foreign assistance
program of the United States to control tuberculosis. In all countries
in which the United States Agency for International Development has
established development programs, the following goals in the battle
against tuberculosis should be achieved by not later than December 31,
2015:
``(1) Reduce by half the tuberculosis death and disease
burden from the 1990 baseline.
``(2) Sustain or exceed the detection of at least 70
percent of cases of tuberculosis infection and the cure of at
least 85 percent of those cases detected.''.
(b) Authorization.--Section 104B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act
of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151b-3(c)) is amended by striking ``is authorized
to'' and inserting ``shall''.
(c) Priority to Stop TB Strategy.--Section 104B(e) of the Foreign
Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151b-3(e)) is amended--
(1) in the heading, to read as follows: ``Priority to Stop
TB Strategy.--'';
(2) in the first sentence, by striking ``In furnishing''
and all that follows through ``, including funding'' and
inserting the following:
``(1) Priority.--In furnishing assistance under subsection
(c), the President shall give priority to--
``(A) activities described in the Stop TB Strategy,
including expansion and enhancement of DOTS coverage,
treatment for individuals infected with both
tuberculosis and HIV and treatment for individuals with
multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB),
strengthening of health systems, use of the
International Standards for Tuberculosis Care by all
providers, empowering individuals with tuberculosis,
and enabling and promoting research to develop new
diagnostics, drugs, and vaccines, and program-based
operational research relating to tuberculosis; and
``(B) funding''; and
(3) in the second sentence--
(A) by striking ``In order to'' and all that
follows through ``not less than'' and inserting the
following:
``(2) Availability of amounts.--In order to meet the
requirements of paragraph (1), the President--
``(A) shall ensure that not less than'';
(B) by striking ``for Directly Observed Treatment
Short-course (DOTS) coverage and treatment of multi-
drug resistant tuberculosis using DOTS-Plus,'' and
inserting ``to implement the Stop TB Strategy; and'';
and
(C) by striking ``including'' and all that follows
and inserting the following:
``(B) should ensure that not less than $15,000,000
of the amount made available to carry out this section
for a fiscal year is used to make a contribution to the
Global Tuberculosis Drug Facility.''.
(d) Assistance for WHO and the Stop Tuberculosis Partnership.--
Section 104B of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151b-3)
is amended--
(1) by redesignating subsection (f) as subsection (g); and
(2) by inserting after subsection (e) the following new
subsection:
``(f) Assistance for WHO and the Stop Tuberculosis Partnership.--In
carrying out this section, the President, acting through the
Administrator of the United States Agency for International
Development, is authorized to provide increased resources to the World
Health Organization (WHO) and the Stop Tuberculosis Partnership to
improve the capacity of countries with high rates of tuberculosis and
other affected countries to implement the Stop TB Strategy.''.
(e) Definitions.--Section 104B(g) of the Foreign Assistance Act of
1961, as redesignated by subsection (d)(1), is amended--
(1) in paragraph (1), by adding at the end before the
period the following: ``, including low cost and effective
diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of tuberculosis, as well
as a reliable drug supply, and a management strategy for public
health systems, with health system strengthening, promotion of
the use of the International Standards for Tuberculosis Care by
all care providers, bacteriology under an external quality
assessment framework, short-course chemotherapy, and sound
reporting and recording systems''; and
(2) by adding after paragraph (5) the following new
paragraph:
``(6) Stop tb strategy.--The term `Stop TB Strategy' means
the strategy described in the Global Plan to Stop TB 2006-2015:
Actions for Life, a comprehensive plan developed by the Stop
Tuberculosis Partnership that sets out the actions necessary to
achieve the millennium development goal of cutting tuberculosis
deaths and disease burden in half by 2015.''.
(f) Annual Report.--Section 104A(e)(2)(C)(iii) of the Foreign
Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151b-2(e)(2)(C)(iii)) is amended by
adding at the end before the semicolon the following: ``, including the
percentage of such United States foreign assistance provided for
diagnosis and treatment of individuals with tuberculosis in countries
with the highest rates of tuberculosis, as determined by the World
Health Organization (WHO)''.
(g) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be
appropriated to the President not less than $225,000,000 for fiscal
year 2007 and not less than $260,000,000 for fiscal year 2008 to carry
out section 104B of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C.
2151b-3), as amended by subsections (a) through (e) of this section.
SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS FOR GLOBAL TUBERCULOSIS
ACTIVITIES OF THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND
PREVENTION.
For the purpose of carrying out global tuberculosis activities
through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are
authorized to be appropriated $30,000,000 for fiscal year 2007 and such
sums as may be necessary for fiscal year 2008. Such authorization of
appropriations is in addition to other authorizations of appropriations
that are available for such purposes. Amounts appropriated pursuant to
the authorization of appropriations under this section shall remain
available until expended.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the Committee on International Relations, 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 within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Referred to the Committee on International Relations, 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 within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Referred to the Committee on International Relations, 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 within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Health, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Chairman .
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