*EPF411 06/24/2004
HIV/AIDS, Foreign Aid Spending Boosted in Preliminary House Bill
(But appropriations panel cuts Bush's overall spending request) (540)

By Berta Gomez
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- A House of Representatives panel has approved a $19.4 billion spending bill that would boost U.S. foreign aid, including for overseas HIV/AIDS programs, though it falls short of President Bush's overall spending request for the coming year.

The measure approved June 23 by a House Appropriations subcommittee would reduce the Bush administration's foreign aid request for the fiscal year starting October 1 by $1.9 billion but still increase spending by $1.9 billion over the current fiscal year.

The subcommittee action is a preliminary step in the appropriations process. A bill must be passed by the entire appropriations committee, the House and the Senate and signed by Bush before it becomes law. The 2005 fiscal year (FY2005) covered by the draft bill runs from October 1, 2004, through September 30, 2005.

Subcommittee members voted to approve the president's request of $2.2 billion to fight HIV/AIDS and other major diseases overseas, and Representative Jim Kolbe, Republican subcommittee chairman, was quoted as saying that another $600 million would be provided in a separate appropriations bill, raising U.S. spending for AIDS programs to $2.8 billion in FY2005.

The funding is part of a major Bush administration push to increase U.S. spending on health crises in poor countries. In 2003, Bush signed legislation committing $15 billion to combat AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria worldwide over five years.

Funding for a separate Bush administration initiative aimed at helping poor countries -- the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) -- would be $1.25 billion in 2005, up from $1 billion this year but only half of the $2.5 billion requested by the president.

The MCA was established in 2003 as a platform for providing additional U.S. aid to poor countries that govern well, invest in their citizens and adopt market-based economic reforms. Under Bush administration plans, MCA spending will reach $5 billion a year by 2006.

The committee also cut the administration's request for the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA), which provides grants and low-cost loans to the world's poorest countries. Under the draft bill, IDA would receive $850 million -- $211 million less than Bush's budget request and $90 million less than in the current year.

The subcommittee measure would increase aid to Poland, a key U.S. ally in Iraq. It also includes military assistance to Pakistan and money to support that country's anti-terrorist operations.

The House panel approved $311 million for humanitarian assistance for victims and refugees from the Darfur region of Sudan, but prohibiting any funds from going to the Sudanese government until its halts sponsorship of the violence in Darfur.

Representative Nita Lowey of New York, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, said she expected that an amendment to restore U.S. funding for the United Nations Population Fund would be offered during the full Appropriations Committee consideration of the bill. Current U.S. law, dating back to the Reagan era, bars aid to international family planning organizations that perform or promote abortions even if they use their own funds to do so.

The full committee is expected to consider the foreign operations measure in early July.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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