The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill to more than triple spending to fight AIDS in Africa and other parts of the world, one of President George W. Bush's foremost foreign aid quests.
The measure, a bipartisan compromise backed by the White House and passed by a vote of 308 to 116, calls for $50 billion (25 billion pounds) in funding for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria programs over the next five years. It marks a big hike from the $15 billion authorized over the first five years of the initiative.
Bush had initially proposed doubling the program to $30 billion. The Democratic-led House boosted it to $50 billion.
A similar bill is heading toward passage in the Democratic-led Senate.
The initiative aims to prevent infection by the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS, treat people already infected and care for children left as orphans by AIDS.
"There is a moral imperative to combat this epidemic," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat.
The White House said the current program is supporting life-saving treatment for 1.45 million people.
The program launched by Bush in 2003 provides support programs and drugs in 15 countries, 12 in Africa plus Vietnam, Guyana and Haiti. The new bill would add 14 more countries in the Caribbean basin, and an amendment approved by the House would add three more African countries.
