WASHINGTON — Former Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., today made his first appearance on Capitol Hill since leaving office in 2006 to champion a bill that aims to reduce global infant mortality.

The Global Child Survival Act includes $5.9 billion over five years for health programs to reduce the 27,000 infant deaths worldwide each day from easily treatable maladies, like pneumonia and diarrhea.

“I know none of us gathered here today believes nearly 10 million children under the age of five dying every year is an acceptable reality,” said Dr. Frist, a doctor who has taken many medical missions around the world.

Dr. Frist has been rumored to be interested in a Tennessee gubernatorial run in 2010, but he declined to answer questions about that, saying he was in Washington solely to focus on the aid bill.

He said preventing infant mortality “would make the biggest impact on changing the course of humanity.”

The bill has been introduced in the House by Reps. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., and Christopher Shays, R-Conn. In the Senate, it was introduced by Sens. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Gordon Smith, R-Ore.

“This is not complicated, this is not expensive,” Sen. Dodd said. “Providing these resources can save millions of children.”

Dr. Frist said the foreign aid can help from a national security standpoint, as well.

“If you reach out and lift up through these simple tools we have today, despair disappears and hope appears,” he said. “That becomes a currency for peace.”