Global AIDS bill stalls

Momentum in the Senate stalled Friday on a long-awaited bill to fight HIV and AIDS, pushing back the White House-backed measure until next month at the earliest.

Republicans refused to give consent to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) request to vote on the extension of the measure, which calls for $50 billion in additional funding for the president’s emergency plan for AIDS relief. Reid first sought to approve the measure by voice vote and then later asked for consent to bring the bill to the floor with a set number of amendments.

{mosads}Both times, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), on behalf of a group of Republicans, objected to the request.

“We thought an agreement had been reached,” Reid said. “I would certainly hope my colleagues would not block this.”

Reid added that the White House desperately wanted the measure to pass so President Bush would not be “embarrassed” in talking about the country's efforts to fight HIV/AIDS in an international summit in July.

The bill had been stalled for months by a group of seven Republican senators, led by Sen. Tom Coburn (Okla.), who are concerned about how the increased money would be spent. But earlier this week, the heads of the Foreign Relations Committee, Chairman Joseph Biden (D-Del.) and ranking Republican Richard Lugar (Ind.), had a reached an agreement “in principle” with the White House and those critics, buoying hopes that the bill would pass before the Senate adjourns for an Independence Day recess at week’s end.

Sessions said that he was objecting on behalf of “a number of senators who have not been part of these negotiations who have some concern,” including Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). Sessions noted that the previous objections raised by the critics had produced a better bill.