WASHINGTON - A Bush administration plan to make it easier for U.S. companies to sell weapons to Britain and Australia is being blocked by a top Republican congressman concerned about American arms falling into wrong hands.

U.S. officials have been unable to persuade Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., chairman of the House International Relations Committee, that the changes will not only strengthen two close allies of the United States, but actually improve the monitoring of weapons exports.

While the issue has received little public attention, it was a high enough priority to prompt Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) to go to Capitol Hill on Nov. 14 to meet with Hyde and the committee's top Democrat, California Rep. Tom Lantos just hours after Powell returned from a trip to Britain with President Bush (news - web sites). Lantos also opposes granting the exemptions.

4:55:11 AM  Google It!  

As president, Bush decreed that any drug benefit should apply broadly. "All seniors should have the choice of a health care plan that provides prescription drugs," he said in last winter's State of the Union address.

That effectively eclipsed the view of many Republicans that only low-income older Americans and those with extraordinarily high drug costs should be covered.

4:51:59 AM  Google It!  

[Washington Post: Editorial]

THIS YEAR WAS supposed to be different. This time around, with Republicans in charge of the House, Senate and White House, the annual appropriations bills were going to be completed -- if not in time for the start of the new fiscal year (Oct. 1), then at least within the same season. And rather than collapse separate spending measures into a bloated, end-of-session catchall, the 13 bills would be debated, passed and conferenced one by one.

Or so the theory went. As lawmakers headed home last week, they had completed work on just six of the 13 bills.

4:48:43 AM  Google It!  

[Washington Post: Editorial]

The prescription drug benefit sections of the Medicare legislation just passed by Congress do nothing to rein in the rising cost of pharmaceuticals or to foster innovation in the drug industry.

In fact, it will probably make a bad situation worse.

4:33:51 AM  Google It!  

[Washington Post: Editorial]

These infections represent a tragic irony at a time of dramatic breakthroughs in AIDS treatment. Most people with HIV who are diagnosed early and receive treatment live more than 16 years from the day of their infection, and many will live a full lifespan. Yet, the 180,000 to 280,000 Americans who are living with HIV but are unaware of their infections -- about one of every four people infected -- are not benefiting from treatment. All the remarkable scientific and medical progress on HIV won't do them any good, because they do not know they are infected.

4:31:35 AM  Google It!