AIDS funding still in jeopardy in the new Congress
It appears that the Democrats haven’t resolved the problem we first identified back in December. We warned then that the Democrats didn’t want a new appropriations bill and instead are using a continuing resolution to fund appropriations for programs like AIDS. The problem is that the Bush Administration had asked for an increase in funds for global AIDS, TB, and malaria by about $1bn, at $3.43bn instead of $4.37bn as Congress had initially agreed last year. So, a continuing resolution keeps funding at least year’s levels. What does this mean?
Well, as Desmond Tutu wrote this week in the Washington Post:
Staying at 2006 funding levels would result in a loss of up to $700 million for the 15 PEPFAR focus countries. As a result, 280,000 fewer people will be put on AIDS treatment. That is 280,000 lives needlessly lost.
This may be a little hyperbole, but one of the main problems identified in a recent audit of PEPFAR was variability of funding. If the announced increases are not forthcoming and the U.S. government fails to deliver on promises it has made to recipient countries, this could have a very damaging effect on the trust other countries and individuals have in the U.S. This is a point made by Michael Bernstein in a recent blog post at CGD.
Democratic leaders of Congress need to hear this message. This is unbecoming behavior.
Filed under: Politics and Policy
[…] Well, in what I’m sure was a direct response to criticism by blogs like this one (joke!) that the Democrats were about to underfund U.S. contributions to the fight against AIDS, Democratic leaders in Congress are starting to put more money in the budget. The Times reported on February 2nd that: But the new Democratic leadership agreed this week to give the administration $4.5 billion this year to combat the big three global pandemics, $500 million more than the president himself had requested and over $1 billion more than if the undertakings had been required to continue at the previous year’s spending levels. The House on Wednesday approved the global health financing as part of an omnibus budget measure. The Senate is expected to take up the bill as early as next week. […]