The New York Times
May 17, 2003
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/17/politics/17AIDS.html

WASHINGTON, May 16 - The Senate voted early this morning to approve President Bush's $15 billion global AIDS initiative, handing the White House a legislative trophy that Mr. Bush can carry with him next month when he joins world leaders at an economic meeting of eight major industrial nations in Evian, France.

At a time when nearly 10,000 people in Africa are infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, every day, the bill authorizes the government to triple its spending on global AIDS, to $15 billion over five years. It makes good on a promise Mr. Bush made in January in his State of the Union address.

The White House had been pressing Senate leaders to adopt the bill, which is similar to one that passed overwhelmingly in the House. The measure gives Mr. Bush an opportunity to demonstrate to other nations, especially France - where relations with the United States were seriously strained by the war in Iraq - that America is committed to exercising moral as well as military might.

Mr. Bush told reporters today that he was "so pleased" the Senate had adopted the bill. "I'll be able to sign it and take it to Europe with me," he said, "as a symbol of the great depth of compassion that our country holds for those who suffer."

The measure was approved by voice vote shortly after 2 a.m. after a marathon session ordered by Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the majority leader. Dr. Frist urged his colleagues to approve the House version intact.

Instead, the Senate made a slight change, a nonbinding provision encouraging the Bush administration to negotiate additional debt relief for AIDS-stricken African countries. House Republican leaders said they expected to adopt the Senate version early next week.

"We have given the president the leverage he needs to call upon the world's wealthiest nations to join our commitment to address this crisis," Dr. Frist said after the vote.

The bill is intended to curb the AIDS epidemic in 12 African nations and two in the Caribbean. It will authorize enough money, proponents said, to prevent 7 million new infections, provide antiretroviral drugs for 2 million people infected with H.I.V. and care for 10 million patients as well as children orphaned by the disease.

Advocates for people with AIDS offered a mixed reaction to the vote. Some said the bill was not generous enough; others objected to its fine print, including a provision, inserted by House conservatives, that requires a third of the money for prevention to go to programs that promote abstinence until marriage.

"The president will get to pat himself on the back for this bill at the G-8 summit in two weeks in Evian," said Sharonann Lynch, an official of Health GAP, a nonprofit advocacy group. "But good P.R. won't win a war on global AIDS."

The Global AIDS Alliance, another nonprofit group, described the measure as "a cruel joke."

Still, Bono, the Irish rock star who has traveled the world to promote more spending on global AIDS, called it a "historic bill."

The measure does not actually provide money for the initiative; that will be left to House and Senate appropriators. Senate Democrats complained today that Mr. Bush's budget for 2004 includes only slightly more than half the $3 billion promised in the Senate bill. "The real test of America's resolve," said Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the Democratic leader, "is whether we fund this promise."

In a series of votes, mostly along party lines, Republicans beat back efforts by Democrats to alter the bill. The exception was the provision on debt relief, which was adopted by voice vote.

The defeated amendments included one to strike the abstinence-only provision, and another, offered by Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, that would have authorized more money for a new global fund to fight AIDS. Mr. Durbin accused Dr. Frist of rushing into the vote without adequate debate.

"This is too important an issue, and it really should be bipartisan," Mr. Durbin said before the vote. "It shouldn't be an issue where they're trying to stare down anyone who wants to change the House bill."

The measure authorizes the United States to donate as much as $1 billion next year to the global fund, but caps American contributions at a third of what international donors provide. Mr. Bush has said he intends to use the bill to press other countries to donate more.

In recent weeks, Mr. Bush met with senators involved in the AIDS bill negotiations. Among them were Richard G. Lugar, the Indiana Republican who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the committee's senior Democrat.

"He wants money from the G-8, he wants commitments, he wants somebody besides the United States in the ballgame," Mr. Lugar said, explaining why he took his name off the amendment for debt relief, which Mr. Biden favored. "I have told him that I will support him."

Despite the disagreement over the details, some senators, including Dr. Frist, said the vote was one they could feel good about.

During the debate late on Thursday night, Dr. Frist spoke of the destruction caused by AIDS, saying, "As history looks back at this day or this year on senators in this body, will we be able to say that we did everything possible to reverse the course of that destruction? I think at the end of this day, we will say yes."