HOUSE VOTES TO PROTECT ANTI-DRUG FOREIGN AID

WASHINGTON -- The House voted Tuesday to protect money for fighting
drugs in South America from lawmakers who argued that foreign aid
dollars would be better spent against AIDS and other world health
problems.

The defeat of amendments to shift money from the Andean anti-drug
initiative to health programs was a victory for the Bush
administration, which said that any reductions below what the
president wanted "would undermine the effort to develop healthy,
licit economies and strong democratic governments in the Andes."

The $15.2 billion foreign aid spending bill for the fiscal year
beginning Oct. 1 passed 381-46. It contains $676 million to fight
drugs and advance economic and political stability in Colombia and
its neighbors. That total is $55 million lower than the president's
budget request.

But many lawmakers, led by Democrats, questioned the wisdom of
military aid to Colombia and said combating the ravages of AIDS and
other disease should be a higher foreign aid priority.

By 2005, 100 million people around the world will be infected by HIV
or AIDS, said Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). "How much more staggering
would the numbers have to become for us to respond in a way that is
commensurate with the leadership of our country?"

The bill provides $474 million for international AIDS programs.
Included in that amount is the $100 million the president requested
for an international HIV-AIDS trust fund.

The House, by a 240-188 vote, defeated an amendment proposed by Rep.
Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) that would have shifted $60 million from the
Andes initiative and military aid programs to the AIDS trust fund.

By a 249-179 vote, it rejected an attempt by Rep. James McGovern
(D-Mass.) to reduce military aid to Colombia by $100 million, moving
half that money into programs to fight tuberculosis and the other
half to child survival programs.

McGovern said he wanted to send a message to the Colombian military
that it must sever all ties with paramilitary groups accused of
human-rights violations against civilians.

But opponents of the two amendments argued that the Andean anti-drug
effort was a vital national security matter. "What we don't want to
do here today in misguided compassion is to turn the clock back on
our efforts to stem illegal narcotics," said Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.).

The successor to President Bill Clinton's $1.3 billion anti-drug
plan, the initiative provides support in areas such as coca crop
eradication, judicial reform and bringing peace to Colombia.