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Mrs. Bush Pushes for Iraq Medical Center
Laura Bush is pushing a $100 million children's medical center she hopes will be built in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. Congress approved $50 million for the project in November as part of $87.5 billion for U.S. military operations and aid in Iraq, although some lawmakers, including Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Operations Subcommittee, have questioned whether the money would be better spent on basic public health measures instead of a modern facility.
| I think Leahy enjoys being a killjoy. |
The project, in its initial phases, eventually is to be a public-private partnership between U.S. Agency for International Development and Project HOPE, a private organization that has helped establish similar facilities in Poland and China, said Mrs. Bush's spokesman Gordon Johndroe. The Coalition Provisional Authority has informed Congress that it is ready to do the project, but is waiting for the lawmakers to respond with guidelines on how the money could be used. The $87.5 billion approved by Congress includes $18.6 billion for reconstruction. Of this amount, Congress approved $493 million for improving hospitals and clinics across Iraq, including $50 million for the pediatric facility in Basra.
| It's a good idea. Iraq is going to be a first-and-a-half world country in the next decade and they'll need this. |
Posted by: Steve White 2004-03-02 |
