Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Wall Street Journal - June 10, 2002
David Rogers
About $500 million is expected to be committed during the next five years to a proposed bilateral-aid program seeking to cut the rate of mother-to-child AIDS transmissions. The initiative is exposing rivalries between Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson and the U.S. Agency for International Development to control how the money is spent.
Preliminary plans had to be rushed out last week to head off Senate demands for more AIDS spending to be added to the emergency-funding bill for the war on terrorism.
Totaling $31.5 billion, the Senate version of that spending bill poses its own challenge to the White House, which appears increasingly overwhelmed by events. The president hopes to regain the upper hand in House-Senate talks on the final bill. But despite veto threats, the Senate voted overwhelmingly for its bill early Friday after a rancorous debate that reflected the failure of the administration and Republicans to develop a unified strategy to cope with growing deficits, as revenue falls and spending demands continue.
In the case of AIDS, administration officials hope to give President Bush a public-relations boost later this month as he heads to Canada for the Group of Eight summit of leaders from major industrial nations. The AIDS plan's centerpiece is to provide the drug nevirapine, made by the German-based Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, to prevent pregnant women from passing HIV to their infants during childbirth or through breast-feeding.
The president has been personally involved in the planning, which reflects his frustration, aides say, with the U.S. simply writing checks to the new multilateral, Geneva-based Global Fund to Combat AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The focus on mother-to-child transmissions is popular with conservatives, but it also raises complex ethical questions regarding the treatment of AIDS-infected mothers after they stop breast-feeding.
Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill says U.S. policy should focus both on blocking mother-to-child transmission and on treating mothers so children aren't orphaned.
The president likely will tap some of the extra $200 million for AIDS programs already added by impatient lawmakers to House and Senate emergency-spending bills, covering the last months of this fiscal year ending Sept. 30. Supporters of the Global Fund had hoped the Senate would approve $500 million. They say the test for the Bush administration will be whether it fills this gap by seeking more money to fight AIDS without cutting other development programs.
Sen. Bill Frist (R., Tenn.), a medical doctor and supporter of more U.S. assistance, said he is convinced the president will do that. But AIDS activists and liberal Democrats such as Sen. Richard Durbin (D., Ill.) accused the White House of budget "double talk," and were upset that Mr. Frist failed to support the full $500 million now.
The House's $30.1 billion emergency spending bill is somewhat smaller than the Senate version. Both bills exceed Mr. Bush's initial $27.1 billion request, but the administration has much more difficulty with the Senate bill, which puts pressure on the president to spend about $4 billion more than he wants for homeland security.
-- Michael M. Phillips contributed to this article.
Write to David Rogers at david.rogers@wsj.com
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