The House of Representatives, Wednesday, overwhelmingly voted to expand a popular program aimed at fighting against HIV and AIDS, worldwide, renewing the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief by authorizing $50 billion - $20 billion more than the White House requested.

The bill, passed by a vote of 308 to 116, will fund PEPFAR program by providing money to treat people infected with HIV and by helping support their families, as well as for a long list of activities aimed at preventing infection.

“We have a moral imperative to act decisively,” said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman, D-Calif. who also added that every day another 6,000 people are infected with the HIV virus, the Associated Press reported.

The White House said the program is supporting anti-retroviral treatment for about 1.45 million people and is on track to meet its goal of backing treatment for 2 million, preventing 7 million new infections and providing care for 10 million, including orphans and vulnerable children.

About $9 billion from $50 billion approved, would go to fight tuberculosis and malaria, which are huge burdens in many countries where the AIDS epidemic is severe.

Initially focused on Vietnam, Guyana, Haiti and 12 African nations, the program will be expanded to included Malawi, Swaziland and Lesotho as well as some Caribbean nations.

According to the United Nations, two-thirds of the 33 million people infected with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa.

Opponents, on the other hand, said the program costs too much. “It is terrible that millions of Africans are suffering AIDS. But we cannot afford such totally irrational generosity. This is benevolence gone wild. We can’t take care of our own veterans when they come home from the war. We can’t take care of our elderly. We have people who can’t take care of their own health needs and are at risk of losing their homes. We have big hearts. But we need to use our brains," said California Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, Reuters reported.