Proposed Funding Cuts Threaten Global Health Initiatives
Posted by
Robert Yule
Washington, D.C.
July 27, 2011
Today there were new developments on Capitol Hill that cause concern about the continued success of U.S. supported global health initiatives.
An Appropriations subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives
proposed severe reductions to global health spending – more than $700 million in cuts to programs combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and other diseases.
United States Capitol Building
“This is exactly the wrong time to reduce funding” for these lifesaving programs, Foundation President and CEO Chip Lyons
said in a statement today.
Lyons urged Congress to restore this critical financial support so that we don’t backslide on the significant progress we’ve made over the past decade, particularly through initiatives like the bipartisan
U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
“Notwithstanding the exceptionally difficult budget environment we find ourselves in, we cannot ignore the fact that U.S. funding has been crucial to reaching previously unseen high-water marks and progress in the global AIDS fight,” he said.
Lyons also cited recent progress in our mission to eliminate pediatric AIDS, such as increased political and financial commitments from countries and international partners, and
a new global strategy issued at the United Nations in June to end HIV infections in children and keep their mothers healthy.
Global AIDS programs were last threatened in February, when some in Congress proposed cutting them by as much as $800 million. Luckily the legislation that ultimately passed in April
preserved most of this critical funding.
The full House Appropriations committee is expected to take up the spending bill next week, and at that point amendments and changes are possible. The Senate will also consider its own spending bill, which is not likely to include such steep cuts to global health.
However, the Senate will probably not take up the issuel until September. This doesn’t leave much time for negotiation between the two chambers of Congress before the fiscal year ends on September 30.
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click here to read Chip Lyons’s entire statement.
Robert Yule is the Senior Media Affairs Manager at the Foundation, based in Washington, D.C.