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Bush signs PEPFAR, expansion of U.S. global AIDS programs
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Wed Jul 30, 2008 5:58pm EDT
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON, July 30 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Wednesday signed into law a big expansion of U.S. efforts to fight AIDS in Africa and elsewhere, warning that defeating this scourge requires an unprecedented investment over generations.
The measure, which won final congressional passage last week, calls for the United States to spend $48 billion over the next five years to help treat and prevent AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere.
The measure more than triples the $15 billion Congress initially funded for the first five years of the program, which began in 2003. It extends and expands an existing effort to bring life-extending drugs to people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, which causes AIDS.
It is considered one of Bush's foremost foreign policy achievements.
"Defeating HIV/AIDS once and for all will require an unprecedented investment over generations. But it is an investment that yields the best possible return -- saved lives," Bush said in a ceremony before signing the bill.
Bush initially asked for $30 billion to extend the program, but the Democratic-led Congress added $18 billion more. Some $39 billion of the money is to be used to fight AIDS, with $5 billion to fight malaria and $4 billion for tuberculosis.
It also lifts a policy in place since 1987 prohibiting HIV-infected foreigners from visiting the United States.
While the measure authorizes the United States to spend the money, lawmakers still need to pass separate appropriations legislation actually providing the money.
"Congress should make sure the program is fully funded on day one, since without the money we cannot save more lives," said Dr. Paul Zeitz, executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance. "Why is the Congress delaying? We cannot wait until 2010 to get these new programs moving."
Bush called it the largest commitment by any nation to combat a single disease in human history.
"Just a few years ago, HIV/AIDS raged out of control," Bush said. "Well, today the outlook is really different. HIV/AIDS is still one of the world's greatest humanitarian challenges, no question about it. But it is a challenge we're meeting."
A U.N report on Tuesday said U.S. and other efforts against AIDS were showing results, with AIDS deaths and new infections dropping in recent years. AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since being identified in the early 1980s.
"The generosity of the U.S. government has helped to truly transform the global response to AIDS and the course of the epidemic," said Dr. Peter Piot, head of the U.N. AIDS agency. (Editing by Eric Walsh)
Bush Enacts Laws To Ease Home Crisis, Expand AIDS Effort
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 31,
President Bush yesterday signed two of the most significant measures of his presidency -- one the most sweeping housing legislation in decades and the other an extension of his massive global program to combat AIDS and HIV infections in the developing world.
The housing bill, which was signed in an early morning private ceremony, is aimed at calming rocky financial markets and giving mortgage relief to up to 400,000 homeowners. Bush had previously vowed to veto the bill because of some of its provisions.
The AIDS bill, in contrast, was signed in a celebratory public flourish yesterday afternoon, and it aims to expand and extend the global program. The legislation authorizes $48 billion to be spent during the next five years to treat and prevent AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, with AIDS accounting for $39 billion of the total. The expenditures would dwarf the $15 billion spent over the previous five years as part of Bush's emergency anti-AIDS efforts, which the president and even many of his detractors view as one of the biggest accomplishments of his tenure.
"We are a compassionate nation," Bush said at the ceremony. "And that's what this bill says loud and clear."
Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Calif.), who sponsored the bill, said its bipartisan support "is a tribute to what we can achieve in foreign policy when the cause is right and all parties work together in goodwill."
This bill overturns a restriction in place since 1992 preventing HIV-positive people from entering the United States without a waiver.
Bush's approval of the housing bill followed months of often-contentious negotiations between congressional Democrats and the White House over how best to stabilize housing markets amid plummeting home values and a damaged credit system. The House passed the bill last week, but nearly three-quarters of the Republican members voted against it. The Senate approved it Saturday.
The law provides temporary authority to the administration to offer the struggling mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac an unlimited line of credit, a move designed to calm global concerns about the government-sponsored but investor-owned firms, which guarantee nearly half of all outstanding mortgages in the United States. The law also will establish a new regulator for Freddie and Fannie and overhaul the Federal Housing Administration.
White House spokesman Tony Fratto said the housing bill would "improve confidence and stability in markets," while also providing more oversight for the mammoth firms. Fratto said new policies implemented under the law are "intended to keep more deserving American families in their homes."
One of the key parts of the bill authorizes the FHA to help homeowners who, because of falling prices, owe their lenders more than their houses are worth. If lenders agree to forgive a portion of the debt and write new loans worth no more than 90 percent of the home's lower value, the FHA will insure the new loans and agree to pay off the lenders if borrowers default. Homeowners also will get an immediate equity stake in their properties, which they would have to share with the government if they sell or refinance.
The law increases the cap on loans handled by the FHA, as well as Fannie and Freddie, to $625,000.
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