Bush AIDS aides to become more christian

PHILADELPHIA, June 23 -- President Bush proposed Wednesday that the executive branch assume significant control over the program that has been the backbone of federal assistance for Americans infected with AIDS. AIDS activists have complained that Bush has largely sought to freeze spending on the Ryan White act, and the president on Wednesday did not pledge any expansion of the program. Instead, he and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson, who accompanied him, said the solution is to ask Congress, which must renew the program next year, to give HHS far more discretion to target the way the subsidies are used. Bush and Thompson also said they want to establish stronger methods of finding out whether organizations are making good use of their subsidies and to expand the number of religious groups funded to help people with AIDS.