]Associated Press
December 12, 2004
Washington — The House on Thursday passed a $15-billion (U.S.) bill that would more than double U.S. contributions to the worldwide fight against AIDS.
Supporters, led by President George W. Bush, said the money could bring relief to millions of people with AIDS and prevent the deadly disease from infecting millions more.
“It sends a message to the world that the United States will not sit idly by and allow AIDS to wreak havoc,” said Democratic Representative Barbara Lee.
The House passed the bill by a 375-41 vote after legislators approved an amendment assuring that one-third of the money for AIDS prevention would go to sexual abstinence programs.
Mr. Bush’s conservative allies had insisted that abstinence get a prominent role in the AIDS effort.
The five-year spending plan is aimed specifically at sub-Saharan Africa, home to 30 million of the world’s 42 million people with AIDS, and the Caribbean. The United States this year is spending about $1.2-billion on international AIDS efforts.
“Not since the bubonic plague swept across the world in the last millennium, killing more than 250 million people, has our world confronted such a horrible, unspeakable curse as we are now witnessing with the growing HIV/AIDS pandemic,” said Representative Henry Hyde, chairman of the House international relations committee.
“So much of what we do is really unimportant and trivial, but not today,” said Mr. Hyde, chief sponsor of the measure with Democratic Representative Tom Lantos.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, has pledged to act quickly on a Senate bill with the goal of getting legislation to Mr. Bush by the end of the month.
Mr. Bush, in his State of the Union address in January, challenged Congress to come up with the significant increase in the country’s financial contribution to the fight against AIDS.
DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa), an advocacy group founded by the rock star Bono, said the bill would prevent seven million new infections, provide care for 10 million HIV-infected individuals and AIDS orphans, and give anti-retroviral therapy for two million.
But the bill also had its critics. Conservatives demanded stronger language to promote abstinence and monogamy as the best ways to prevent AIDS. They also sought language protecting religious groups that object to the distribution of condoms in their anti-AIDS programs.
The House approved, 220-197, an amendment requiring that one-third of funds spent on prevention go to abstinence programs. ``It’s important that we not just send them money, but we send them values that work,” Republican Representative Mike Pence said.
The legislation recommends that 20 per cent of the aid for other countries go to prevention, with 55 per cent for treatment programs, 15 per cent for palliative care and 10 per cent for orphans.
Prevention programs are modelled after the “ABC” approach that has achieved some success in Uganda. The model stresses “A” for abstinence, “B” for being faithful and “C” for condom use when appropriate.
The White House said in a statement that it supported language that would “prioritize the abstinence component of the ABC approach.”
Critics contended that the Uganda model has been successful because all three approaches were given equal importance. Uganda, while stressing abstinence and monogamy, has also been distributing 80 million condoms a year, Mr. Lantos said. “Countless lives will be lost if we fail to learn this lesson.”
Kate Carr, president of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, said prevention programs are most effective “when they have the flexibility to match strategies to the specific needs of each community.” Requiring that 33 per cent go to abstinence is ``compromising the effectiveness of the overall effort.”
The House approved an amendment by Republican Representative Christopher Smith to strengthen protections for religious groups. Smith and others noted that Roman Catholic groups, which object to condom distribution, care for one-quarter of AIDS victims worldwide.
Conservatives balked at increased support for the recently established international Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, saying it lacked accountability and effectiveness.
Mr. Bush asked for $200-million a year for the fund; the legislation allows, but does not require, the contribution of up to $1 billion to the fund in 2004. Hyde said his bill increases monitoring of the fund and limits the U.S. contribution to 33 per cent of total donations.
The actual spending of money authorized by the bill must still be approved by the appropriations committees responsible for annual budgets. Appropriators pointed out that Mr. Bush asked for only $1.7- billion for global AIDS in his 2004 budget proposal, and that it will not be easy to find the rest of the money.