U.S President George W. Bush is asking Congress to follow up his Administration's current program to fight HIV/Aids around the world with a new plan doubling spending to $30 billion over five years.
Announcing this at the White House Wednesday, Bush said the new plan would enable the U.S. "to support treatment for nearly 2.5 million people, to prevent more than 12 million new infections, and to support care for 12 million people, including more than five million orphans and vulnerable children."
The Washington Post reported Thursday that the president's call was met with "broad support uncommon in Washington," although the New York Times suggested that it was part of a White House effort "to burnish Mr. Bush's humanitarian credentials" before next week's G8 meeting in Germany.
Bush's announcement was widely welcomed by politicians and activists, including members of the opposition Democratic Party who head the Africa sub-committees of both houses of Congress.
Senator Russ Feingold, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs, said there had been "impressive progress" in the fight against HIV and Aids, "but the battle is far from won." Congressman Donald M. Payne, chairman of the Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health of the House of Representatives, welcomed the increased funding but said much more was needed.
Both the Global Business Coalition (GBC) on HIV/Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the Health Global Access Project (GAP) called for an end to ideologically-based constraints on funding.
GBC executive director, Dr. John Tedstrom said Bush's program was one of the country's "most impressive and successful foreign assistance programs." But Congress should remove constraints on working with sex workers and drug users, and eliminate a rule that one third of the prevention budget should be for promoting abstinence.
Health GAP made a similar appeal and said also that the $30 billion "would not keep pace with the spread of the epidemic and escalating demands for treatment."
