For Immediate Release: 5 PM Wednesday April 2, 2003
Paul Davis, +1 215 833 4102

House Republicans Defy Bush Attempts to Sabotage Global AIDS Bill

Today the House International Relations Committee, Chaired by Representative Henry Hyde, voted on a bill that authorizes $3 billion dollars a year for each of the next five years to fight Global AIDS. The bill earmarks at least $1 billion for the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. The Global Fund is facing bankruptcy in spite of the fanfare accompanying its launch two years ago by world leaders at the G8 summit in Genoa.

Activists from Health GAP applaud Chairman Hyde and his Democratic counterpart Tom Lantos for resisting the extensive attempts from the White House to shrink the size of the bill and to eliminate or reduce the earmarks for the Global Fund. Hyde also resisted maneuvers by extreme conservatives in the Administration to insert anti-family planning and anti-condom language in the bill.

"Representatives Hyde and Lantos deserve a lot of credit for putting the lives of millions of people with AIDS before the foolish unilateralism and right wing extremism of the Bush Administration." stated Health GAP's Paul Davis. "The Republicans who have reversed their own positions on global AIDS and squashed this bill in the Senate to please President Bush should instead follow the example of Representative Hyde."

Health GAP also approved of the bill's inclusion of a "challenge grant" for the Global Fund, where the United States will leverage other nation's future contributions to the Global Fund by matching donations at 33 cents for every dollar contributed. "The innovation of a challenge grant is exactly what is needed to leverage resources from other wealthy nations in time for the G8 summit this June when donors will make new commitments to the Global Fund," reports Davis. "The House members working on this bill have crafted a creative and urgently needed response to a global health disaster that supports the good parts of the White House global AIDS plan, and corrects the damaging mistakes."

Unlike Representative Hyde, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has retreated under White House pressure from his past positions supporting billions for the Global Fund, while Senate Foreign Relations Chair Richard Lugar has twice withdrawn the bill from the calendar this session. Davis noted "Representative Hyde today stuck to his convictions in spite of the thumbscrews applied by White House. Will Senator Frist publicly make a stand in support of the positions he has held in the past?"

Advocates fear a House Floor ambush from extremist Members of Congress seeking to insert dangerous and irrelevant amendments about family planning and the use of condoms. "House leadership must bring this bipartisan bill to a vote as quickly as possible without damaging amendments," said Davis.