SRES358-119

What This Bill Does

This Senate resolution honors the late Dr. Paul Farmer, a renowned global health advocate, by declaring that the United States should adopt a comprehensive 21st century global health strategy. The resolution calls for dramatically increasing U.S. global health spending to $125 billion annually (meeting the UN target of 0.7% of gross national income), addressing economic policies that harm developing countries, and issuing reparations for slavery, colonialism, and climate damage. As a non-binding "sense of the Senate" resolution, it establishes a moral framework but does not create enforceable legal obligations or appropriate actual funds.

Who Benefits and How

Developing countries would be the primary beneficiaries through multiple channels: receiving $125 billion annually for health system investments focused on Dr. Farmer's "Five S's" framework (staff, space, stuff, systems, and social support), gaining debt cancellation across bilateral and private creditors, and obtaining greater decision-making power in international institutions like the IMF and World Bank. Community health workers in poor countries would benefit from professionalized programs with adequate compensation and training. African Americans would receive reparations for slavery and ongoing discrimination, while former colonized nations and climate-vulnerable Global South countries would receive reparations for historical harms and disproportionate climate impacts. Global health NGOs and civil society organizations would gain increased funding and formal participation in governance decisions.

Who Bears the Burden and How

U.S. taxpayers would bear the largest burden through the $125 billion annual commitment, representing a massive increase from current foreign aid levels to meet the 0.7% GNI target that only six other countries have achieved. Private creditors holding developing country debt would face revenue losses from debt cancellation initiatives. Multinational corporations would face higher compliance burdens from international tax reforms designed to prevent tax avoidance and illicit financial flows from developing countries. Employers benefiting from low global wages would face increased labor costs from proposed global minimum wage standards set at local living-income thresholds. International financial institutions like the IMF, World Bank, and WTO would undergo governance reforms that reduce the influence of wealthy nations in favor of more equitable representation for low- and middle-income countries.

Key Provisions

• Increases annual global health spending to $125 billion to close 100% of the essential health coverage financing gap for low-income countries and 30% for lower-middle income countries, delivered through Dr. Farmer's "accompaniment" model that prioritizes local control and national health plans
• Supports professionalized community health worker programs with adequate compensation, comprehensive training, and sustainable retention, alongside investments in medical schools, teaching hospitals, and health infrastructure at all levels
• Mandates debt cancellation for low- and middle-income countries across bilateral, multilateral, and private creditors to free resources for health and social services
• Calls for democratizing global governance institutions (IMF, World Bank, WTO) to give developing countries equal representation and decision-making power in policies that affect them
• Supports a UN Convention on Tax and other measures to eliminate tax avoidance, tax evasion, and illicit financial flows from developing countries through fundamental international tax reform
• Establishes the Federal Government's duty to issue reparations (including apology, financial awards, and guarantees of non-repetition) for slavery and its ongoing impacts on African Americans, for colonialism and imperialism's damage to sovereignty and self-determination, and for disproportionate U.S. responsibility for climate breakdown affecting the Global South
• Promotes global labor rights including a global minimum wage set at local living-income thresholds and adoption of new progress indicators that measure social and ecological health instead of GDP