Policy & Politics Senate Appropriations Committee Approves $2.4 Billion for AIDS, TB, Malaria ProgramsSeptember 16, 2004 The Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved a $19.5 billion fiscal year 2005 foreign aid bill, which includes $2.4 billion for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria programs, USA Today reports. The majority of the funding -- which is $200 million more than President Bush originally requested for the programs -- would go to the 15 countries covered under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, according to USA Today (USA Today, 9/16). However, the committee on Wednesday also approved $150 million in "off-budget emergency funding" for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, according to the Wall Street Journal (Rogers, Wall Street Journal, 9/16). The House-approved FY 2005 foreign aid spending bill included $2.2 billion for HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria initiatives. Although the House-approved funding met Bush's request for FY 2005, the House allocated a larger portion of the money to the Global Fund than Bush had requested. Bush's proposed FY 2005 budget includes $2.8 billion for international HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria programs. That amount includes $1.45 billion for the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, which will administer PEPFAR, and $200 million for the Global Fund. Because the House spending bill would double the requested Global Fund contribution to $400 million, less money would go to PEPFAR (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 7/16). The Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday also approved $1.1 billion -- $1.4 billion less than Bush had requested -- for the Millennium Challenge Account, a program designed to encourage poor countries to make political and economic reforms in exchange for aid from the United States, according to the AP/Las Vegas Sun. The House approved a "similar" decrease in MCA funding, according to the AP/Sun (Fram, AP/Las Vegas Sun, 9/15).
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