Opening Statement Of Sen. Patrick Leahy,
Chairman, State, Foreign Operations Subcommittee Hearing
FY08 Budget Request For Maternal And Child Health,
And Family Planning/Reproductive Health
April 18, 2007

The focus of today’s hearing is on aspects of our global health programs which address the core public health needs of the world’s poorest people.

As the chart on my left makes clear, while funding for HIV/AIDS has for obvious reasons and with the bipartisan support of this Subcommittee increased dramatically in recent years, funding for maternal and child health, and family planning/reproductive health, has languished. 

This should concern all of us, when you consider what a difference these programs make, and when you consider what we take for granted in our own country.

Over the past thirty years, expanded immunization programs, often costing only pennies per child, have saved millions of lives.  Family planning/reproductive health programs have also made an enormous difference in child survival and women’s health.  USAID has been at the forefront of these efforts.

But despite great progress and countless lives saved, 11 million children under age five die each year, mostly from easily preventable and treatable causes like diarrhea, pneumonia or measles.  The Administration’s FY 2008 budget request for these programs is $373 million, compared to $420 million in FY 2007. 

An estimated 200 million women still lack access to family planning, and up to one-third of the half a million yearly maternal deaths could be prevented with basic reproductive health services.  The Administration’s FY 2008 budget request for these programs is $325 million, compared $436 million in FY 2007.

It seems to me that we are short-changing programs that have a long history of proven success, and which are fundamental to any effective public health system.

We are also witnessing an alarming exodus of health professionals from developing countries to higher paying jobs in the industrialized countries.  The short and long term consequences of this brain drain, coupled with the deaths of countless health workers from AIDS, are staggering

We have four outstanding witnesses who should be able to help guide us as we try to make the best use of the resources we have.  It is simply unacceptable to me that a country of our economic means would spend far less on maternal and child health, and on family planning/reproductive health, for the world’s two billion poorest people, than we spend for the same purposes in a tiny state like Vermont with a population of 625,000 people.  I believe most Vermonters would also find it unacceptable, as I suspect would most Americans. 

Dr. Kent Hill, Assistant USAID Administrator for Global Health, will lead off by describing the Administration’s FY 2008 request for the programs we are discussing today.

Dr. Helene Gayle is currently the President of CARE, one of the country’s leading organizations fighting global poverty.  Previously, Dr. Gayle headed USAID’s HIV/AIDS programs, and at the GATES Foundation she was the Director of HIV, TB and Reproductive Health.

Laurie Garrett is “Senior Fellow for Global Health” at the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Pulitzer Prize winning author of “The Coming Plague” and “Betrayal of Trust:  The Collapse of Global Public Health.”

Dr. Nils Daulaire, from my own State of Vermont, is President of the Global Health Council, after serving as USAID’s Senior Health Advisor.

After Senator Gregg makes his opening remarks, I suggest that we hear from Dr. Hill and then each of the other witnesses in the order in which you are seated.  I would ask the witnesses to limit your oral remarks to 5 minutes, and we will place your longer written testimony in the record.

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