WP: More Funds for Fighting AIDS

[Guest guest]

The Washington Post

November 01, 2003, Saturday, Final Edition

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A05

More Funds for Fighting AIDS; Vote Brings 2004 Total to $2.4

Billion

Helen Dewar, Washington Post Staff Writer

In a bipartisan push for more money to combat the global spread of AIDS,

the Senate has approved a substantial increase in President Bush's

funding request for this year, although the final number could be

reduced in negotiations with the House.

Voting 89 to 1 late Thursday, the Senate agreed to add $ 289 million to

foreign aid spending for fiscal 2004 to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and

malaria in sub-Saharan Africa and Caribbean countries -- most of it

targeted for prevention and treatment of AIDS.

Together with funds in other spending bills, the increase would provide

a total of $ 2.4 billion for AIDS-fighting efforts during the year. Bush

asked for $ 2 billion, contending this was all that could be usefully

spent in the first year; the House approved $ 2.1 billion.

But even the Senate increase falls short of the $ 15 billion, five-year

investment -- averaging $ 3 billion a year -- that Congress authorized

after Bush proposed it in his State of the Union message in January. The

Senate later went on record as favoring $ 3 billion for 2004.

Even though the Senate bill failed to meet the $ 3 billion target, it

was hailed by AIDS advocacy groups and their Senate allies as a step in

the right direction.

The Senate-approved increase means the United States can " meet our

obligation in providing at least $ 2 billion in bilateral aid and meet

our current matching requirement to the global fund " that has been set

up to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, said Sen. Mike DeWine

(R-Ohio), chief sponsor of the proposal. It will save " thousands and

thousands of lives, " he added.

" We're still not where we promised we would be, but we must take this

important step forward, " said Sen. J. Durbin (D-Ill.), who

pushed unsuccessfully to appropriate the full $ 3 billion. His proposal

was rejected, 50 to 42.

Zeitz, executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance, said the

vote is " welcome news for millions of people living in devastated

countries, " and it signals that Congress " is rejecting the president's

claim that we cannot spend more to fight global AIDS. "

Approval followed a brief dispute over the fact that the additional AIDS

money breached congressional budget limits. Budget Committee Chairman

Don Nickles (R-Okla.) demanded that cuts be made in other spending to

cover the cost of the additional AIDS funding. But DeWine appeared to

have enough votes to override the budget objections, and Republican

leaders resolved the dispute by agreeing to take the money from unspent

defense funds.

Sen. Kay Hutchison (R-Tex.) was the lone dissenter in the AIDS

vote. An aide said Hutchison thought Bush's proposal was adequate in

light of defense and other needs in a tight budget year.

In other action on the AIDS proposal, the Senate earlier this week

approved an amendment by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) directing the

administration to spend at least $ 75 million to provide greater safety

in medical injections and blood transfusions in countries covered by the

legislation.

" Conservative estimates, based on World Health Organization data, tell

us that 1,000 people a day are going to their local health providers and

are receiving, in effect, a death sentence in the form of dirty, re-used

needles or a tainted blood transfusion that carries the HIV virus, " he

said in a statement.

The Senate rejected a proposal by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) to

provide more flexibility in funding abstinence programs, which critics

said could lead to less spending on abstinence efforts.

The $ 18.4 billion foreign aid bill was subsequently approved by a voice

vote and now goes to a House-Senate conference to work out the

differences. In addition to deciding how much to spend on anti-AIDS

efforts, negotiators must decide whether to approve or reject a Senate

proposal to overturn the administration's ban on financial support for

international organizations that perform or promote abortions. The White

House has threatened a veto if the Senate provision is included in the

final version of the bill.