Pact Would Give Global AIDS Fight Triple the Money

The bill would permit AIDS testing and treatment at sites that provide family planning, although no PEPFAR money could be used for contraception or abortion. An earlier version would have allowed the money to be used for reproductive health, but that was removed during negotiations Tuesday night.

The legislation's goals include, by 2013, preventing 12 million new infections; providing antiretroviral treatment for 3 million people (including 450,000 children); medical and nonmedical care for 12 million (including 5 million orphans); and training at least 140,000 new health-care workers.

The bill is expected to go to the House floor within two weeks. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is at work on its own bipartisan proposal "consistent with the way this committee operates," said a senior aide, who requested anonymity because he is not an authorized spokesman.

"This bill is not perfect, but no compromise ever is," said Howard L. Berman (D-Calif.), who became acting chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee upon the death this month of Tom Lantos (D-Calif.). The measure is named in honor of Lantos and the late Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), who as committee chairman in 2003 helped push the original bill to passage.

Numerous Republicans spoke in support of the bill, although a few said they did not have enough time to review the amended version, which was delivered to the committee room warm off the photocopying machine. About a half-dozen said "no" in the voice vote, which passed.

"I have been here 20 years, and this is the most insane thing I have ever witnessed," Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) said. He added that "we have people at home who need to be taken care of," citing veterans and families that cannot afford health insurance.

Praise came from as far away as UNAIDS, the United Nations' program in Geneva, which said the vote "sends a strong signal that the United States is committed to maintaining its leadership role in the global response to AIDS."

"We are actually very pleased that the president has agreed to $50 billion," said Jennifer Flynn, a director of Health GAP, an organization frequently critical of the administration's AIDS efforts.