House unites to pass bill to fight African HIV/AIDS.(Chicago Tribune)

Byline: Jill Zuckman

WASHINGTON _ The normally fractious House of Representatives united Thursday to pass a $15 billion, five-year plan to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa and the Caribbean, by far the biggest contribution by the United States _ or any nation _ to the worldwide fight against the disease.

Just three months after President Bush called on Congress during his State of the Union address to take action, the House voted 375-41 to approve legislation that would provide up to $3 billion a year to provide care, treatment and prevention in those afflicted countries.

"Not since the bubonic plague swept across the world in the last millennium, killing more than 250 million people, has our world confronted such a horrible, unspeakable curse as we are now witnessing with the growing HIV/AIDS pandemic," said Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill.

In contrast to many of Bush's initiatives, some of the gravest reservations about the AIDS package have come from fellow conservatives. Noting that it allows for the distribution of condoms, they have voiced the fear that the program does not place enough emphasis on abstinence and monogamy.

But Hyde, chairman of the International Relations Committee, managed to pull together various factions in the House, appeasing conservatives by adding to the measure money for abstinence education while at the same time luring liberals with a $1 billion boost in funding in the first year.

The legislation faces trouble in the Senate, despite the steadfast commitment of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., a physician who has declared the AIDS bill one of his top priorities. The measure has not even been introduced in the upper chamber, as conservatives continue to balk.