House OKs $48 billion for global illness fight

WASHINGTON — The House voted Thursday to triple money to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis around the world, giving new life and new punch to a program credited with saving or prolonging millions of lives in Africa alone.

The 303-115 vote sends the global AIDS bill to President Bush for his signature. Bush, who first floated the idea of a campaign against AIDS in his 2003 State of the Union speech, supports the five-year, $48 billion plan.

Passage of the bill culminated a rare instance of cooperation between the White House and the Democratic-controlled Congress. The current $15 billion act, which expires at the end of September, has helped bring lifesaving antiretroviral drugs to 1.7 million people and supported care for nearly 7 million.

While some GOP conservatives questioned the sharp spending increase, others said the U.S. aid had important security as well as moral implications and gave a needed boost to America's reputation abroad.

Bid to tap U.S. oil reserve falls short

House Democrats failed Thursday to force the Bush administration to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower gasoline prices as Republicans stuck to their demands for a vote on an expansion of offshore drilling.

Despite winning majority support, the measure to draw 70 million barrels of light-crude oil from the reserve for sale in the commercial market did not receive the two-thirds support needed under special rules. The vote was 268-157, 16 short of the margin needed.

Republicans held together to stall the measure, which Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader, and others ridiculed as shortsighted because it would do nothing to increase the production of oil. The lighter crude, which can be more easily refined, would be replaced in the reserve with a heavier crude.

Democrats said the approach had had a swift impact on gasoline prices in the past and would provide more immediate relief for drivers than long-range Republican proposals for drilling.

House approves bridge-safety plan

The House overwhelmingly passed legislation Thursday aimed at improving the safety of the nation's bridges, nearly a year after the deadly collapse of an interstate highway bridge in Minneapolis.

The vote was 367-55.

The legislation would authorize an additional $1 billion next year to rebuild structurally deficient bridges on the national highway system, and require states to come up with plans to fix such bridges.

The White House has said it opposes the bill unless the $1 billion provision is deleted.

Seattle Times news services