From the NY Times July 25, 2008

[Madeleine]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/washington/25aids.html?_r=1&th=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&emc=th&adxnnlx=1216988506-TGOP4jTzRaFUevs6N40yIw&pagewanted=print

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July 25, 2008
House Passes Broader Plan to Fight AIDS
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House voted Thursday to triple financing to
fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis around the world, giving new life
and new punch to a program credited with saving or prolonging millions
of lives in Africa alone.

The 303-to-115 vote sends the bill to President Bush for his
signature. Mr. Bush, who first floated the idea of a campaign against
AIDS in his 2003 State of the Union address, supports the five-year,
$48 billion plan.

The passage of the bill was a rare instance of cooperation between the
White House and the Democrat-controlled Congress. It was “born out of
a willingness to work together and put the United States on the right
side of history when it comes to this global pandemic,” said
Representative Barbara Lee, Democrat of California, a leader on the
issue.

The current $15 billion act, which expires at the end of September,
has helped bring lifesaving antiretroviral drugs to about 1.7 million
people and supported care for nearly 7 million. The President’s
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as Pepfar, has won plaudits from
some of Mr. Bush’s harshest critics.

Representative Howard L. Berman, Democrat of California and chairman
of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the United States “has
given hope to millions infected with H.I.V., which just a few years
ago was tantamount to a death sentence.” H.I.V. is the virus that
causes AIDS.

According to a study by Unaids and the Kaiser Family Foundation, the
United States provided one-fifth of AIDS financing from all sources —
governments, international aid groups and the private sector — in
2007. Of the $4.9 billion disbursed in 2007 from the Group of 8
countries, Europe and other donor governments, about 40 percent came
from the United States.

The legislation approves spending of $5 billion for malaria and $4
billion for tuberculosis, the leading cause of death for people with
AIDS.

The program has focused on nations in sub-Saharan Africa that have
been devastated by AIDS, but it has also provided help in the
Caribbean and other areas hit by the pandemic now affecting about 33
million people worldwide. Even with advances in treatment, there are
still about 7,000 new H.I.V. infections every day around the world.

The Senate also attached a measure to the new bill, welcomed by AIDS
advocacy groups, that ends a two-decade-old American policy that has
made it nearly impossible for people who are H.I.V. positive to get
visas to the United States as immigrants, students or tourists.



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