This commentary is by Evi O’Hara-Short, a recent University of Vermont graduate who is an advocacy fellow with the Fund for Global Health. She worked previously at the University of Vermont Medical Center Women’s Health Clinic.
During Sen. Patrick Leahy’s years as chair or ranking minority member on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee for state and foreign operations, which funds U.S. foreign assistance, he has helped change the world of global health.
After more than 30 years, he gave up that title in 2021, only to become chair of the full Appropriations Committee.
His dedication to the subcommittee has been vital. It’s in large part due to his leadership that we have witnessed so many improvements in U.S. support for global health during his tenure.
In the 1970s, Harry Chapin, the American singer-songwriter and founder of World Hunger Year, sparked the senator’s interest in addressing world hunger. Chapin had a “fundamental belief that access to nutritious food is a human right, and hunger is a solvable problem in a world of abundance.”
In 1978, Leahy and Chapin worked with President Carter to form the Presidential Commission on World Hunger. Working in partnership with numerous stakeholders as a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Sen. Leahy successfully advocated for and secured food aid to help address hunger and food shortages around the world. Since then, he has supported significant increases in funding for nutrition programs.
This action illustrates the senator’s ability to work with others to turn good ideas into tangible improvements in global health.
Another major influence was Dr. Nils Daulaire. Sen. Leahy met Dr. Daulaire in the early 1990s when he returned from working on child health in Nepal. Dr. Daulaire showed the senator where funding was needed most. For example, he introduced the senator and his team to the top experts on seven neglected tropical diseases that the U.S. Agency for International Development was only minimally addressing. These are diseases most Americans have never heard of, such as ascariasis and schistosomiasis, found mostly in poor communities in low-income countries.
In the 1990s, USAID’s funding for neglected tropical diseases was $2.5 million. It was evident that was not enough. The experts’ guidance showed what more funding could do and over the years Sen. Leahy, with the support of other members of the Appropriations Committee, has built this funding up to its current level of $107.5 million, a substantial and well-deserved increase.
Unlike some other politicians, Sen. Leahy has used his position to focus on a wide range of different issues throughout his career. He has made sure that even new and rising concerns get the attention they deserve.
For example, an issue we have seen grow, as well as the government’s attention to it, during the senator’s more than 30 years on the subcommittee has been funding for global HIV/AIDS programs. In 1990, funding for HIV/AIDS was $52 million. It was around this time that the senator became chair of the subcommittee. Thanks to his dedicated leadership, and his work with other appropriators and several administrations, funding is now $6.26 billion.
Sen. Leahy sponsored or cosponsored the most legislation that provided funding increases and support on global HIV/AIDS of any legislator in the House or Senate. Through these measures, we can see his leadership, dedication, and commitment to this issue.
One result of the senator’s leadership is shown in a story told by Tim Rieser, the Democratic clerk for the subcommittee and the senator’s right-hand man handling foreign policy for the past 33 years. In the 1990s, Uganda was the epicenter for HIV/AIDS transmission. The senator, Mr. Rieser, and a member of the USAID team went to meet with Ugandan President Museveni.
At that time, the predominantly Catholic country had a policy prohibiting the use of condoms, which had led to a dramatic spread of the AIDS virus. They spoke with Museveni about his policy and showed him a graph with the projected devastating consequences for his military and his country if that policy remained. After that discussion, the condom policy was eliminated, which saved millions of lives in Uganda.
Sen. Leahy does his best to work in a bipartisan fashion and makes it clear that he cares for people and issues more than politics. Improving global health has been a clear priority for the senator since shortly after he was first elected. Now that he is retiring, we should continue working for the improvement of global health programs as the senator has done throughout his career.
Recently, he was acknowledged by his Republican counterpart on the subcommittee, Sen. Lindsey Graham, who said, “I’ve gone all over the world and Sen. Leahy is a known figure. In terms of the United States Senate, when he speaks, people listen.”
On behalf of the millions of people whose lives you’ve saved, thank you, Sen. Leahy.
