US House Votes to Spend $50bn Fighting Aids and Helping Orphans in Developing Countries

America could more than triple spending to fight Aids in Africa and around the world after the House of Representatives voted in favor of committing $50bn in funding.

The bill, passed on Wednesday by a 308-166 vote, goes further than the White House had demanded in channeling funds to help those with Aids and children left orphaned by the disease.

In the waning months of the Bush White House, the campaign against Aids could stand out as one of the most successful foreign policy initiatives of his presidency. Michael Gerson, a former speech writer for Bush, has called it the most successful foreign aid program since the Marshall plan.

However, it faces opposition in the Senate from fiscal conservatives - who are alarmed at the $50bn price tag - as well as Democrats opposed to funneling money for Aids programs through faith-based groups.

At first the bill appears to deliver a defeat to one of the hallowed principles of Bush and social conservatives, that abstinence programs be at the forefront of the fight against Aids.

Bush's first Aids initiative, which called for $15bn over five years, had mandated that a third of all funds go towards abstinence programs.

The bill approved on Wednesday drops that requirement - although it requires notification to Congress if the funding is not evenly allocated for programs encouraging single people to abstain from sex before marriage and to remain faithful after they are married.

That has worried some women's organizations, who are concerned that the net effect could funnel more cash - not less - into abstinence programs.

"The reporting requirement in practice, in the field, means that people are likely to believe that they have to put more money - not less - into abstinence only and fidelity programs," said Adrienne Germain, president of the International Women's Health Coalition.

Other organizations are pushing for more funds to be devoted to family planning programs.

The White House estimates that the current program, launched by Bush in 2003, has paid for Aids testing, counseling and treatment with retro viral drugs for more than 1.4 million people in a dozen countries in sub-Saharan Africa as well as Vietnam, Guyana and Haiti.

The bill passed by the house would broaden the scope of the program, chanelling funds towards providing food aid and clean drinking water to Aids patients and micro credit to women who are widowed by the disease.

It would also extend $5bn to the fight against malaria and $4bn to boost the action against tuberculosis. More countries would also be covered, especially in the Caribbean region.