The requirement remains that countries receiving PEPFAR funding must spend at least 50 percent of it on abstinence-until-marriage programs or risk losing funding. "Abstinence-only-until-marriage has been an abject failure in the U.S. and it is undercutting the local, effective prevention efforts in Africa and elsewhere," said Marjorie J. Hill, CEO of Gay Men's Health Crisis. Countries that receive the funding must officially denounce commercial sex work as well, despite the need for outreach and prevention education among sex workers.

S. 2486, the HIV Non-Discrimination in Travel and Immigration Act, was introduced in the Senate in December of 2007. Added to the PEPFAR reauthorization, it has opened the door for repeal of an administrative ban on HIV-positive people from entering the United States, enacted in 1987 and codified by Congress in 1993, as originally proposed by the late Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC). HIV, since then, has been specifically named as one of the "communicable diseases of public health significance" to explicitly bar a person from abroad visiting the United States without a special waiver, and almost always from becoming a legal immigrant. The Secretary of Health and Human Services has the right to determine in any other case which illnesses are true public health risks.

"We appreciate the President signing the repeal of this unjust and sweeping policy that deems HIV-positive individuals inadmissible to the United States," Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese said. "The HIV travel and immigration ban performs no public health service, is unnecessary and ineffective. We thank our allies on the Hill who fought to end this injustice and now call on Secretary of Health and Human Services Leavitt to remove the remaining regulatory barriers to HIV-positive visitors and immigrants."

Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Gordon Smith (R-OR) led efforts to have the legislation passed, with the support Senators Joe Biden (D-DE) and Richard Lugar (D-IN), top ranking members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) introduced a similar bill, H.R. 3337, in August 2007. The repeal passed the House on a 303-115 vote on Thursday after the Senate's 80-16 affirmation on July 16.

"Today the United States rejoined the civilized world, at least on this aspect of immigration policy," added Dr. Hill. "We thank President Bush and Congress, and especially Senators Kerry, Smith and Congresswoman Lee, for their leadership. We call on HHS Secretary Leavitt to remove the remaining regulatory barriers that prevent people living with HIV from entering the United States."