Bush Breaks Promise On AIDS Funding, Activists Say

by Miriam Kagan

"The level of hypocrisy among many in the Senate seems to know no limit when it comes to the global AIDS crisis," Dr. Paul Zeitz, executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance, said in a statement.

On Sept. 9, the Senate voted 51-43 to reject an amendment presented by Sen. Richard Durbin that would have provided an additional $1 billion for the global fight against AIDS.

The next day, it rejected another proposal to provide an additional $300 million for the fight against HIV/AIDS, which affects more than 36 million people and over 25 million in Sub-Saharan Africa alone.

Africa is home to 12 million children orphaned because of AIDS.

Durbin initially introduced the amendment in an attempt to fulfil a promise of the administration of President George W. Bush that it would provide three billion dollars to fight HIV/AIDS in fiscal year 2004.

In his State of the Union speech last January, Bush asked Congress to "commit $15 billion over the next five years, including nearly $10 billion in new money, to turn the tide against AIDS in the most afflicted nations of Africa and the Caribbean."

Bush spoke of an "emergency plan for AIDS relief" that, by committing $3 billion a year over five years, was to be "a work of mercy beyond all current international efforts to help the people of Africa."

But in his budget, the president only committed $2 billion to various AIDS initiatives, far less than what he initially promised in the authorization bill and far less than what health experts say is needed.

The administration claimed to have arrived at the $2 billion figure after carefully considering how much money AIDS programmes could effectively use, says David Bryden, communications director of the Global AIDS Alliance.

But the figure was "not grounded in careful investigation of what resources can best be utilized, but in OMB's (the Office of Management and Budget) balancing of different budgetary priorities, such as the tax cut."

AIDS activists had hoped that this week senators would pass an AIDS funding amendment to the Labor, Health, and Human Services Bill, bringing the total closer to the promised three billion dollars.

They were particularly irate because six senators who voted against the amendment were senior Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who had recently returned from a 10-day trip to Africa.

"How can Republic leaders, including Bill Frist ... travel to Africa and shake the hands of the most desperate people in the world, and still vote 'nay' last night?" asked Zeitz.

The budget appropriated only $400 million for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria.

The Global Fund is an NGO designed to attract, manage, and distribute resources through a public-private partnership to fight illnesses and death caused by AIDS, Malaria, and TB.

According to Bryden, the administration wants to limit aid to the Global Fund for political reasons.

Because the Fund is an NGO independent of the U.S. government, it is harder for the administration to get the "political benefit of having accomplished something," Bryden suggested in an interview with IPS.

The "political benefit" that President Bush is after, he added, is "showing to swing voters -- African Americans and women -- that there is some substance to the U.S. compassionate global agenda."

The administration reportedly sent letters to congressional leaders urging them not to pass any additional appropriations for AIDS funding.

Decreased funds, says Bryden, could also harm TB and Malaria projects, particularly in Latin America. "This could leave whole regions in the lurch," he added.

Perceptions of Washington in the international arena may also be affected.

In the Maputo Declaration, announced during the second ordinary session of the assembly of the African Union (AU) in July, 52 African heads of state explicitly called for the United States to keep its promise of 15 billion dollars in AIDS funding.

But recent decisions of the administration and Senate might damage U.S. credibility, already wounded by opposition to poor nations' access to cheap drugs, said Bryden.

Zeitz urged the U.S. government to provide the amounts promised.

"These senators and President Bush seem determined to defy 52 African heads of state, the United States Catholic Conference, the heads of 13 Protestant and Orthodox Christian denominations, the Congressional Black Caucus, the NAACP and a broad range of other civil organizations, all of whom have explicitly appealed for the U.S. to keep her promises by providing three billion dollars."

"We say 'enough': it's time to treat AIDS like a real emergency," added Zeitz.