Roll call: House passes bill to fight AIDS in Africa

On May 1, by a vote of 375 to 41, the House overwhelmingly passed a bill (H.R. 1298) to deliver $15 billion in foreign aid to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in Africa.

The bill, which President Bush promised in his State of the Union address, was controversial because of opposition from social conservative activists. In the end, although conservatives were able to ensure that some basic checks were established against the funds being hijacked by radicals, they did not have the clout to ensure passage of a better AIDS bill.

Rep. Betty McCollum (D.-Minn.) was among the many arguing in favor of the bill. "While Congress debates this bill, every 15-year-old boy in Botswana is living with a 90 percent, a 90 percent chance of dying from AIDS during his life. AIDS is destroying millions of lives, families, and entire nations in Africa. Congress should and must act now."

"America possesses the wealth, the knowledge, the leadership to partner with the people of Africa to save lives, offer dignity to the dying, and provide opportunity to orphans struggling for survival," she added

A mere handful of conservatives opposed the bill. Libertarian Rep. Ron Paul (R.-Tex.) was the only congressman to speak against the bill as a whole.

"The question is not whether each and every one of us is concerned or would like to do something about this terrible problem," he said. "The question is whether yet another massive government foreign aid program will actually do anything at all to solve the problem. The United States has been sending billions and billions of dollars overseas for decades to do fine-sounding things like 'build democracy' and 'fight drugs' and 'end poverty.' Yet decades later we are told that in every category these things have actually gotten worse rather than better. Our money has disappeared into bank accounts of dictators and salaries for extremely well-paid consultants and U.S. government employees. Yet we refuse to learn from these mistakes; we are about to make another multi-billion dollar mistake with this bill."

Paul also invoked Thomas Jefferson. "None of the amendments address the immorality of forcing Americans to fund organizations engaged in family planning, performing abortions, and distributing condoms. As Thomas Jefferson famously said, 'To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas be disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.'"

Paul, who opposes all foreign aid, was joined by a small but significant group of social conservatives in voting against the bill. Meanwhile, other socially conservative congressmen were willing to support the bill because of provisions-like the Pitt amendment (see rollcall at left)-that at least keep some of the money from being spent on causes they consider evil.

However, conservative groups were very unhappy with President Bush's desire to ram this bill through the House, because it will likely allow foreign abortionists to cash in on the AIDS program-especially once Bush has left office and America has another liberal president.

A "yes" vote was a vote in favor of H.R. 1298, to spend $15 billion on AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria prevention and treatment in Africa. A "no" vote was a vote against the bill.

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. May 12, 2003
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