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| $15 Billion AIDS Plan Wins Final Approval in Congress |
May 21, 2003 |
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By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
The New York Times
WASHINGTON, May 21 — The House gave final approval to President Bush`s $15 billion global AIDS initiative today, clearing the way for Mr. Bush to sign the measure before he leaves next week to meet Western leaders for an economic meeting in Evian, France.
The bill, which gives the federal government the authority to triple spending on global AIDS over the next five years, is an important symbol for Mr. Bush, who has made spending to combat AIDS a centerpiece of his "compassionate conservative" agenda at home and abroad. It is intended to prevent and treat AIDS in 12 nations in Africa and 2 in the Caribbean.
"The AIDS virus is a moral challenge to our civilization," Representative Henry J. Hyde of Illinois, chairman of the House International Relations Committee and the chief Republican sponsor of the measure, said today in the House chamber. "I know that today my colleagues will be animated by the compassion and vision that has always defined what it means to be an American."
That is the message President Bush wants to take to next week`s forum, where he will meet with European leaders who are still irritated with the United States over the war in Iraq. The White House is seeking to use the AIDS initiative to demonstrate Mr. Bush`s commitment to moral causes as well as military ones. At the same time, the president plans to make the argument that other nations should follow the lead of the United States and increase spending on AIDS.
Today`s action, by voice vote, brought Mr. Hyde`s measure — which passed the House this month by the overwhelming vote of 375 to 41 — into line with a version the Senate passed last week. That bill added a provision encouraging the Bush administration to begin negotiations that could lead to debt relief for nations hardest hit by AIDS.
The overall measure makes good on a promise President Bush made in January in his State of the Union address. The White House says it will prevent 7 million new infections, provide antiretroviral drugs for 2 million infected people and care for 10 million patients and children who have lost their parents to the disease.
But the measure does not provide the money to pay for the initiative; that will be left to House and Senate appropriators. And it is not without controversy; some advocates for AIDS patients say it provides too little money for a global fund to fight the disease, while others are upset about a provision that requires one-third of the prevention money in the bill to be set aside for programs that exclusively promote sexual abstinence until marriage.
But the initiative`s backers say it is an important step toward curbing the global AIDS epidemic, which has claimed 23 million lives since 1981, when the disease was first recognized. Today nearly 10,000 people in Africa are infected each day with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS.
"It`s rare that we pass legislation that has the true power to save the lives of millions of people worldwide," said Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the Republican majority leader, who has been a major proponent of increasing spending on AIDS.
Mr. Frist called the bill a "truly historic leap that may very well turn the tide of this devastating disease."
Despite bipartisan support for the increased spending, the initiative proved contentious. Conservatives worried that the money would be steered to agencies that provide abortions and tried, unsuccessfully, to draft legislation that would have included language prohibiting AIDS money from going to such programs.
Instead, the White House brokered a compromise in which agencies may provide abortions and also receive federal AIDS financing, as long as the programs are separate and the money is strictly accounted for.
Republicans and Democrats were also at odds over whether money should be steered toward programs that promote sexual abstinence only, and they had difficulty agreeing on how much should go to the new global fund, set up two years ago by the United Nations. Republicans said the fund was untested; Democrats said it needed more money.
The disagreements were so severe that Mr. Frist was unable to reach a compromise in the Senate; that task fell to Mr. Hyde in the House.
Mr. Hyde said of AIDS, "Left unchecked, this plague will further rip the fabric of developing societies, pushing fragile governments and economies to the point of collapse." |
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