On May 9, the Senate Appropriations Committee also approved, by voice vote, the FY2001 foreign operations spending bill (S. 2522). The measure was not considered by the subcommittee. One of the more controversial appropriations bills, the foreign operations spending bill is generally delayed due to abortion-related restrictions.
Last year’s bill included a “global gag rule,” which prohibited international family planning organizations from receiving U.S. funds if they use their own funds to perform abortions abroad or if they lobby foreign governments on abortion policy. The language broadly defines lobbying to include “any activity or effort to alter the laws or governmental policies of any country.” The President was allowed to waive the restriction, but if he exercised the waiver, the total funds available for international family planning would be reduced by three percent. Additionally, the total funding available to groups using their own funds to perform abortions abroad or lobby on abortion policy was capped at $15 million. The President immediately exercised the waiver upon enactment of the measure.
Overall, development assistance would receive $1.4 billion, an increase from the $1.1 billion appropriated in FY2001. Under the measure approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee, international family planning programs would receive not less than $425 million, an increase of $40 million over the $385 million appropriated in FY2000. That figure was reduced by three percent. The measure also includes language that would reverse the “global gag rule.”
The bill also would provide $25 million for the U.S. voluntary contribution to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). UNFPA would be required to keep U.S. funds in a separate account and no money could be spent in China. The draft bill does not include an additional restriction in current law that reduced the U.S. contribution to UNFPA dollar-for-dollar by the amount spent in China.
The Senate measure also creates a new account for global health, which would be funded at $651 million. Under that account, HIV/AIDS prevention would receive $225 million, microbicide research would receive $15 million, tuberculosis pervention would receive $41 million, malaria prevention would receive $65 million, and the Global Alliances for Vaccines and Immunizations would receive $50 million. These initiatives were recently included in a bill (S. 2382) to reauthorize foreign aid programs that was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (see The Source, 3/24/00, p. 1).
