U.S. Congress Should ‘Step In’ to Increase International AIDS Spending, Tennessean Editorial Says
Congress should "step in" to increase the United States' contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria if the Bush administration does not offer more than its proposed $200 million for fiscal year 2003, a Nashville Tennessean editorial says. Although HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, "putting the best possible spin on the proposal," calls the administration's proposed contribution "a sign" of the United States' "commit[ment] to advancing the work of the fund," the amount does not "impres[s]" others, the editorial continues. The proposal falls "far short" of the $1 billion contribution that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan "would like to see" from the United States and is less than the $750 million that the House authorized for the fund in December, the Tennessean notes. Thompson has said the proposed amount is a "significant increase" over the $100 million pledge in 2001; however, the U.S. pledge amount is "actually smaller by percentage than any of the world's richest nations," the editorial concludes (Nashville Tennessean, 1/30).
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