We’ve asked Congress for $670 million, a historic budget request, for the ending the HIV epidemic in the United States initiative,” Biden said.
The president gave Bush greater credit later in the event, while regaling the crowd about his own role re-authorizing Bush’s PEPFAR program, which the Republican president proposed in January 2003 before Congress approved an initial $15 billion to aid poor countries.Later, Biden noted that Bush, who often cited his Christian faith when pushing PEPFAR and credited Condoleeza Rice with advising him on the matter, founded the ambitious global HIV/AIDS program“Since President Bush launched PEPFAR in 2003, we’ve saved more than 21 million lives