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TIICANN - Title II Community AIDS National Network
From the Los Angeles Times
Senate and Bush at odds over AIDS funding Nick Anderson
Times Staff Writer
October 31, 2003
WASHINGTON -- The Senate is on a collision course with President Bush and the House after voting to raise annual spending for international AIDS relief to $2.4 billion, roughly $400 million more than the administration had sought for the initiative to help nations in Africa and elsewhere ravaged by the disease.
The Senate's 89-1 vote late Thursday approved a funding increase of $289 million for combating AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. That added further to a spending level already about $100 million more for the current fiscal year than Bush and his House Republican allies had envisioned.
The issue now heads to a House-Senate conference. Lawmakers will decide how much to spend on AIDS relief through two bills funding foreign operations and health programs.
Funding for international AIDS programs has drawn new attention this year after Bush called for a $15 billion, five-year crusade against the disease in his January State of the Union address.
A law passed in May to implement Bush's landmark initiative authorized up to $3 billion in AIDS funding for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. But the president himself only sought $2 billion for the year, arguing that more money could not be efficiently spent as the program begins. The House agreed with his contention. In mid-October, the administration repeated its strong opposition to any funding beyond $2 billion.
But pressure has grown in the Senate to spend more. The measure passed Thursday night was sponsored by Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) and backed by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), both of whom have traveled to Africa recently and seen firsthand the destruction caused by the disease.
"We need to move forward," DeWine said after his amendment was approved. "We need to move forward now. This is an emergency in the truest sense of the word. We cannot be timid. We cannot be afraid. We must be bold and start taking some chances right away."
The amendment, attached to an $18 billion foreign operations bill, passed after sponsors found unspent money in a defense account to offset any increase to the federal budget. The foreign operations bill also passed Thursday on a voice vote.
The lone dissenter to DeWine's amendment was Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas).
The rock star Bono, an advocate of AIDS relief, praised the Senate action. "More money to fight the AIDS emergency is critical, not just to save millions of lives in Africa, but to keep the momentum going," Bono said. "Senator DeWine is the bodyguard of the world's poor today, and deserves real praise."
The Senate defeated, on a largely party-line vote, a Democratic amendment to raise international AIDS relief to $3 billion for the fiscal 2004.
Copyright © 2003, The Los Angeles Times
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