Bush Signs Bill to Triple AIDS Funding

WASHINGTON | President Bush signed legislation Wednesday that triples U.S. funding to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis around the world.

The five-year, $48 billion plan renews a program credited with saving millions of lives in Africa alone.

Bush said the program, launched by him in 2003, "is the largest commitment by any nation to combat a single disease in human history."

The president signed the bill surrounded by lawmakers and people affected by AIDS whom he met on his February trip to Africa.

The legislation is a rare case of relatively easy cooperation between Congress and the White House. It passed the House last week by a 303-115 vote and the Senate earlier in the month by a vote of 80-16.

It renews Bush's original five-year, $15 billion program called the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which was set to expire in September.

Some GOP conservatives questioned the new plan's sharp spending increase. But most on both sides of the aisle, and in groups that advocate both health initiatives and Africa, praised the U.S. aid for boosting America's reputation abroad.

The AIDS initiative has so far supported care for nearly 7 million people and helped deliver lifesaving anti-retroviral drugs to about 1.7 million HIV-positive people.