President Prods Lawmakers To Pass His Global AIDS Initiative

April 29, 2003

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush is giving his $15 billion global AIDS initiative a shove on Capitol Hill as lawmakers haggle over what emphasis the program should place on abstinence.

While his staff is quietly working with lawmakers on the details, Bush planned to tell an audience in the Rose Garden on Tuesday that the House is off to a good start. Bush expects swift action from Congress, said a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A House committee passed legislation earlier this month that closely reflects what Bush wants. That bill, by Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., would set aside $15 billion over five years to expand AIDS treatment worldwide through low-cost drugs.

Bush also wants "prevention education rooted in the proven abstinence-based approach," the White House says.

But the House International Relations Committee rejected an amendment stating that promoting abstinence and monogamy should have priority.

The panel sided with a version offered by Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., that does not give preference to any one preventive method. Supporters of this plan said that it was a mistake to focus on any one strategy when local customs vary widely around the world.

Among those expected in the Rose Garden was Hyde, chairman of the International Relations Committee.

Of the $15 billion, Bush would channel $14 billion directly to other countries, with the other $1 billion going to the Swiss-based, public-private Global Fund to Combat AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Some critics of the Bush plan want the United States to give more money to the global fund. But the White House says it already gives the fund half its money, and that the United States should have more control over where the AIDS money is spent.

The House bill would allow up to $1 billion to be given to the Global Fund in the 2004 budget year, and adds oversight functions to ensure the fund is run efficiently. The White House has proposed $200 million a year over five years for the fund.

Funds from the bill would also be used to combat tuberculosis and malaria.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer pointed to the Ugandan model, also endorsed in the Hyde bill, as the key to a successful approach to HIV/AIDS epidemic. That "ABC" approach stresses behavioral change with "A" for abstinence, "B" for be faithful and "C" for using condoms when appropriate.

The bill is set to go to the full House for a vote as early as Thursday, and the White House sees the Senate Foreign Relations Committee taking it up perhaps next week. Final votes are likely to come next month, administration officials say.

Some 25 million people have died from AIDS and that number could rise to 80 million by 2010, Hyde says.

Kate Carr, president of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and a supporter of the Hyde bill, said Tuesday would be significant for the tens of millions of people worldwide suffering from HIV and AIDS. That Bush was putting aside his focus on the war in Iraq and his tax cut plan to talk about AIDS "sends a very important signal, and we hope Congress gets the message."

The senior administration official said that was precisely Bush's aim -- to renew his focus on the "compassionate conservative" items on his agenda, with the war all but over.

Bush meets Tuesday evening with House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.