Congress Sends $20.9B Foreign Aid Spending Bill To President Bush; Measure Contains $2.8B To Fight AIDS

Congress on Thursday sent to President Bush a fiscal year 2006 $20.9 billion foreign aid appropriations bill that includes more money to fight global HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria than he requested but less funding than he proposed for the Millennium Challenge Account, Reuters reports. The Senate unanimously passed the measure (Reuters, 11/10). The bill, which the House approved last week, includes $2.8 billion to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria, which is $258 million more than Bush requested for the diseases in his proposal. The $2.8 billion includes $450 million for the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Bush in his FY 2006 budget proposal across all departments asked for $3.2 billion to fight the three diseases worldwide, including $300 million for the Global Fund. The foreign aid spending bill also includes $1.77 billion for MCA, which is $282 million more than current funding but less than Bush's request of $3 billion. When Bush created MCA in 2002, he had planned to provide $5 billion to the program in FY 2006. However, the program over the last two years has approved agreements with only four countries for projects totaling $610 million, even though Congress has appropriated $2.5 billion during that time (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 11/7).