President Bush is giving his $15 billion global AIDS initiative a shove on Capitol Hill as lawmakers haggle over what emphasis the program should place on sexual abstinence.

With the Iraq war all but over, Bush's speech Tuesday on combatting AIDS worldwide was part of his renewed focus on the "compassionate conservative" items on his agenda. Bush feels "an absolute moral calling ... to help those in need in Africa and the Caribbean who have been ravaged by this," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

While his staff is quietly working with lawmakers on the details, Bush planned to tell an audience in the Rose Garden that the House is off to a good start. Bush was calling for swift action from Congress.

Conservatives are outraged over President Bush’s expected endorsement today of a House AIDS funding bill that they say is inconsistent with what he outlined as a top priority in his compassionate conservative agenda.

The bill, written by House International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) and ranking member Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), is opposed by conservative groups and lawmakers because it does not prioritize abstinence and monogamy over the use of condoms. The legislation cleared committee earlier this month with unanimous Democratic support, but conservatives on the panel voted against it.

They were shocked by news late last week that the White House would endorse the Hyde-Lantos bill because they were lobbying intensely to change it.