House Approves Funding for Millennium Challenge Corporation, President’s International AIDS Program, Global Fund, USAID
The House on Friday voted 373-34 to approve the $21.3 billion fiscal year 2007 foreign operations authorization bill (HR 5522), CongressDaily reports (Congress Daily, 6/9). The House Appropriations Committee last month approved the bill, which includes funds for a variety of foreign assistance programs, including HIV/AIDS programs. The bill includes $3.4 billion to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria; $2 billion for the Millennium Challenge Corporation, one of President Bush's key foreign assistance initiatives; and $445 million in funding for the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The bill would provide the same overall amount requested by Bush for FY 2007 and would represent a $752 million increase over last year; double the amount requested by Bush for the Global Fund from the foreign operations accounts; and reduce by $1 billion the amount requested for MCC, although this is $248 million above last year's funding level. MCC was created to administer funds for the Millennium Challenge Account, a program aimed at encouraging economic and political reforms in developing countries. Twenty-three countries currently are eligible to apply for MCC funding. Bush's February proposal included $3 billion for MCC, which would have provided enough funding to sign agreements with eight additional countries (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 5/26). In total, the bill would increase by $71 million the President's request for overall funding for USAID, which would receive $4.1 billion. This is $303 million below the FY 2006 funding level, according to an appropriations committee release (House Appropriations Committee release, 6/9).
This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.