While supporters of a five-year, $50 billion global AIDS bill have fended off major amendments so far, they cut a quiet deal with some of its critics to redirect $2 billion to American Indian programs.

The Senate on Wednesday adopted by voice vote an amendment by John Thune, R-S.D., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., to move the money to Indian law enforcement, drinking water and health care.

“This modest redirection will still allow  . . .  reauthorization levels of more than three times their current amount,” Thune said, as the Senate continued to vote on amendments to the global AIDS measure.

Since the program was created in 2003 to fight AIDS and other diseases overseas, Congress has since provided almost $19 billion. Now, Republicans, Democrats and the White House agreed to authorize another $50 billion.

Kyl and Indian Affairs Committee Chairman Byron L. Dorgan, D-N.D., convinced Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Del., the bill’s sponsor, to allow diversion of a small slice of the funding for American Indian programs.

The amendment’s supporters said domestic health-care needs, particularly in a traditionally underserved community, require attention too. Thune said American Indians are three times as likely as average Americans to die from diabetes, and 11 percent of those living on reservations lack safe drinking water.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he hoped to finish the bill Wednesday, though several key tests remain, including an amendment by Jim DeMint, R-S.C., to pare it back to $35 billion and another by Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., to strike language that would lift a ban on HIV-positive visitors to the United States.