Bush AIDS initiative gets bipartisan renewal

"There is a moral imperative to combat this epidemic," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco). "Few crises have called out more for sustained, constructive American leadership."

Forty million people worldwide are believed to be HIV-positive, Pelosi said, and an estimated 20 million have died from AIDS.

Ever since the global AIDS initiative began in 2003, focusing on 15 countries primarily in sub-Saharan Africa, 30 million people have been tested or received counseling for HIV, according to government statistics, and 1.4 million have received anti-retroviral medications.

The legislation, which was approved 308-116, required compromise on both sides.

Conservatives gave up a demand that abstinence be the centerpiece of efforts to fight AIDS; when the program began five years ago, the Republican majority then in control of Congress included language requiring that one-third of all funds spent on prevention go toward abstinence-related initiatives. The legislation approved Wednesday mandated "balanced funding" to support a so-called A-B-C strategy: abstain from sex until marriage; be faithful; and use condoms.

Liberals agreed to accept some restrictions on activities by family planning organizations. Under the bill, funding may go to family planning clinics to pay for HIV/AIDS testing and education but not abortions. Faith-based organizations will also continue to receive funding.

"For all its strengths, the bill before the House today is not perfect," said Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Valley Village), who helped craft the package as chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "No compromise ever is. No one got everything they wanted."

The bill, which authorizes expenditures of $10 billion a year through 2013, dramatically expands the scope of the program beyond HIV/AIDS and Africa. The reauthorized program will provide substantial food aid and clean water programs for millions of people in the developing world.