House subcommittee approves $2.2 billion in global AIDS funding

The House foreign operations appropriations subcommittee on Wednesday approved on a voice vote a $19.4 billion fiscal 2005 spending bill that includes $2.2 billion for international AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria programs. The bill allocates $400 million for the United Nations-backed Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, more than double what President Bush requested for the fund, setting up a potential showdown with the White House should the measure reach the full House for a vote. The bill also includes $1.45 billion for the State Department Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator, which administers the Administration's five-year, $15 billion President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The $2.2 billion approved by the House subcommittee, combined with an anticipated $600 million in international AIDS spending in the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education appropriations bill still being studied, would bring overall AIDS spending in fiscal 2005 to $2.8 billion, short of the $3 billion pledged in PEPFAR.