Chicago Tribune: Durbin, Brownback urge AIDS funding

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http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_theswamp/2007/01/durbin_brownbac.html#more

Originally posted: January 3, 2007Durbin, Brownback urge AIDS funding Posted by Christi Parsons at 3:20 p.m. CST

They come from opposite ends of the political spectrum, but Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) are teaming up this week to lobby for HIV/AIDS funding.

Durbin and Brownback on Wednesday urged colleagues to preserve almost $1 billion in funding for programs to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, money that could be lost in upcoming appropriations battles.

Funding for those programs for the coming year was set at $4.36 billion, but now Democrats are planning to simply continue the funding at the 2006 fiscal year level, which stands at $3.43 billion, according to advocates and to the two senators.

"The difference between those two numbers will be measured in lost human lives," the senators wrote in a Wednesday letter to colleagues.

Durbin, a founding member of the Senate Global AIDS Caucus, has fought for years to increase the share of federal funding dedicated to fighting AIDS worldwide. He will be the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate when the new congress is convened later this week. He is also a staunch supporter of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who is currently considering a run for president in 2008.

Brownback, a favorite of social conservatives, recently set up an exploratory to consider a run for the White House in two years. He has worked on bills to ease Africa's AIDS crisis and recently appeared -- with Obama -- at a World AIDS Day summit at Saddleback Church in southern California.