Senate Approves FY 2005 Foreign Aid Bill, Including $2.4B for AIDS, TB, Malaria Programs

The Senate on Thursday approved by voice vote a $19.6 billion fiscal year 2005 foreign aid appropriations bill, which includes $2.4 billion for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria programs, the AP/Las Vegas Sun reports. That amount is $220 million more than President Bush proposed in his FY 2005 budget, according to the AP/Sun (Fram, AP/Las Vegas Sun, 9/23). The House in July approved its version of the bill, which includes $2.2 billion for HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria initiatives (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 9/16). The Senate also approved $1.12 billion for the Millennium Challenge Account, a program designed to encourage low-income countries to make political and economic reforms in exchange for aid from the United States, according to the AP/Sun. That amount is less than half the money Bush requested in his budget proposal, the AP/Sun reports (AP/Las Vegas Sun, 9/23). The House in its version approved a similar decrease for MCA (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 9/16). The two chambers now must form a conference committee to write a compromise measure, the AP/Sun reports (AP/Las Vegas Sun, 9/23).