OK, papa -- want some more? I just called my workout partner to tell him I'll be a few minutes late.
Here's why the 2003 bill was a reauthorization of the 2000 bill: The 2000 law authorized spending for a number of programs for 2 years, including a $10 million contribution to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, $50 million to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, as well as 2 year commitments to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Kerry re-drafted the bill in 2002 to reauthorize these spending programs that were sunsetting under the original bill (as well as all the rest of the omnibus legislation; however, House Republicans got hung up on some of the authorizing amounts and refused to move the bill. Frist balked (a true leader, that one!) and Bush did nothing to push it through. Since they're in the majority, the bill was killed.
But Kerry came back a year later in 2003 and pushed through what was in fact a reauthorization of the 2000 legislation.
And you bet I hate when you say things like "Kerry didn't care enough to see the vote take place." Why? BECAUSE IT'S NOT TRUE. How do you know what Kerry cares about? How dare you ascribe motives to him. Like I said before: you clearly hate Kerry and try to stick him with all your negative motives, even though they're based in the fiction of your mind, not reality.
He worked the bill out with his colleagues and his vote was not necessary -- it passed by voice vote. I doubt any Senators were on the floor that night to vote by voice other than one representive of both parties and whoever was sitting in the chair for the Vice President. That's the way it works.
Now please stop -- I have to work out. And I'm calling Bob Shrum to explain to him how you have to fight against this kind of crap in the future.
Stop worrying about what I'm doing -- focus instead on what you're eating.