Breaking news, Wednesday, July 9, on HIV legislation stalled in the US Senate for weeks. A source in Washington emailed me this afternoon, saying:

A few minutes ago [Senate leader] Reid brought it [PEPFAR reauthorization] to the Senate floor...He said he had 17 signatures on a petition in favor of the bill. He sounded very determined and insistent and fed up with the delays. Then [Senator] Kyl objected, so Reid has filed for cloture, which will be voted on Friday morning. We are very disapponted at Kyl's action. Every day, AIDS kills about 6000 people and infects another 7000, so delay is the last thing we need. Kyl's delays have hurt President Bush's leadership at the G8 Summit.

What does this mean?

Jon Kyl, the junior senator from Arizona, pretty much has sterling conservative credentials and a "solidly conservative voting record" in the words of the Almanac of American Politics. So what is his beef with the reauthorization of PEPFAR, perhaps the most relatively untarnished legacy program ...

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