Congressional Leaders Should Push Bush Administration To Funnel More Money to Global Fund, Editorial Says
Although the Bush administration's strategy of using the Millennium Challenge Account to distribute AIDS funding is "laudable," such a tactic would put the account in "competition with the already-established" Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a Los Angeles Times editorial says (Los Angeles Times, 12/13). The Millennium Challenge Account is an assistance program for developing nations that encourages democracy and development through economic aid (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 12/10). The Global Fund in the last year has proven its ability "to effectively finance projects" to fight disease, according to "neutral auditors," but competition between the fund and the Millennium Challenge Account "is sowing needless division in the humanitarian community and delaying the arrival of help that is needed now," the editorial says. Therefore, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and other congressional leaders should encourage the Bush administration to funnel more money to the Global Fund, the Times concludes (Los Angeles Times, 12/13).
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