*EPF516 05/16/2003
U.S. Senate Passes Emergency AIDS Relief Package
(Bush says move gives "hope of life to millions" in countries most afflicted) (940)

By Charlene Porter
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The U.S. Senate worked into the night to cast a passing vote on a $15,000 million HIV/AIDS relief package in the pre-dawn hours of May 16. The U.S. House of Representatives passed virtually the same bill May 1, so the measure soon heads to President Bush for his signature.

"Congress has given the hope of life to millions of people in countries most afflicted by AIDS," said Bush in a White House statement issued hours after the vote. "This historic legislation will enable us to provide critical treatment and care for millions who suffer and greatly expand successful prevention programs to help those at risk."

The House-passed bill was a close match with a plan for AIDS relief first outlined by the president in his January State of the Union message, and expanded in an April 29 statement. The plan calls for $15,000 million in aid over five years to be directed primarily to 14 nations where disease rates are very high and governments and communities have demonstrated capability to improve their health care systems.

The bill is intended to prevent 7 million new infections, treat 2 million HIV-infected people with anti-retroviral therapy and care for 10 million HIV-infected individuals and AIDS orphans.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist urged passage of the bill as the debate began, noting its unprecedented level of assistance for a global health issue. "It is the first time in legislation that we have ... prevention, care and treatment," said the Tennessee Republican. " With that, over time, we will be able to reverse the course of this virus."

The Senate began the debate on the House-passed bill in the shadow of considerable legislative history on the issue. The Senate passed a similar AIDS relief package last year, but it died after lack of action by the House of Representatives. A new Senate-authored bill for global AIDS assistance is pending, but Frist urged the members to take up the House bill instead and act on it swiftly, without amendment. That legislative strategy would avoid what could become prolonged House-Senate negotiation on differences in their respective laws. Frist urged this approach so that the president would be able to attend the G-8 summit in early June and present the new U.S. law as an inducement for other nations to increase their contributions to the international disease-prevention effort.

Frist suggested that strategy, knowing that many of his colleagues preferred the earlier-passed version of the bill over the House-passed legislation. "We can't let the perfect be the enemy of what the good is in this particular bill," he said.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar was a cosponsor of the competing legislation, but he endorsed Frist's strategy in order to produce a law in short order. "The United States must have partners in the effort to stop HIV/AIDS," the Indiana Republican said in floor debate. "Passage of this bill will maximize the president's ability to enlist other nations in the fight against AIDS."

The strategy met with resistance from another co-author of the previous bill, Democratic Senator Joe Biden of Delaware. He criticized a controversial provision adopted by the House of Representatives that requires that one-third of all dollars devoted to infection prevention be earmarked for programs advocating sexual abstinence.

"I am concerned that this limitation is impractical," said Biden. "I believe that the Agency for International Development and other agencies working on the ground are competent to decide how much money to spend on abstinence-only programs based on local conditions."

Biden's attempt to remove the provision failed.

The amount of money devoted to the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was another controversial provision. The bill designates up to $1,000 million for the global fund over four years, with the rest of the funding devoted to bilateral aid to the 14 high-risk countries. Some lawmakers argued for a greater allocation for the global fund.

"The global fund's scope is worldwide, covering not only countries where AIDS is rampant, but also countries such as Russia, China and India where the epidemic is growing rapidly," said Senator John Kerry, a Democrat from Massachusetts. That amendment was also defeated by the Frist passage strategy.

The Senate did add one amendment to the bill as received from the House, increasing debt relief to countries with a severe public health crisis.

The bill ultimately passed on a voice vote, well ahead of the end-of-May goal that President Bush urged when he offered details on his emergency plan for AIDS relief.

Despite broad and deep support for the bill, and recognition of the dire needs of countries facing mounting decline and suffering because of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Senate Minority leader Tom Daschle reminded his colleagues that they still have to deliver on the funding to actually set the relief plan in motion.

"It is important to note ... that this is just an authorization bill. By itself, it does not commit one dime to prevent AIDS or help its victims," Daschle said.

Representative Henry Hyde, a co-sponsor of the House-passed bill, said in reaction to the Senate vote, "It is my expectation that the House will accept the only Senate amendment to the bill that provides debt relief for poor nations, and that this vital legislation will be signed by the President within the next few weeks."

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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