NEW YORK, 2nd February: The Democratic-led House in the US Congres acted this week to rescue one of President George Bushs international priorities: the global fight against AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, diseases that kill millions of Africans each year.
That Democrats stepped in to champion Mr. Bushs signature global health undertakings suggests the deepening of political support for foreign aid programs, especially those that quickly demonstrate they can save hundreds of thousands of lives.
It also bucks a historical pattern of declining support for foreign assistance when control of Congress and the White House is divided between Democrats and Republicans.
– We are in a different world now, said Democratic Representative Nita M. Lowey, who heads the appropriations subcommittee that oversees foreign aid, adding: – This is the first time since Sept. 11 2001 we have had a power split in Washington, and there is a growing recognition among the public and policy makers that foreign assistance is critical to stability around the world.
The administrations drive for a rapid strengthening of programs to prevent and treat AIDS and malaria had been caught in limbo (stået i stampe). The departing Republican-led Congress failed to pass spending bills to finance most federal agencies this fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, including those that administer foreign aid.
But the new Democratic leadership has agreed to give the administration 4,5 billion US dollar this year to combat the big three global pandemics, 500 million dollar more than the president himself had requested and over 1 billion more than if the undertakings had been required to continue at the previous years spending levels.
The House of Representatives Wednesday approved the global health financing as part of an omnibus budget measure. The US Senate is expected to take up the bill as early as next week.
Under Mr. Bush, American aid to Africa has risen to more than twice the level of any previous administration and more than triple that achieved during the Clinton administration, according to an analysis by the Center for Global Development, a nonprofit research group in Washington D.C.
While Congress has embraced increased global health spending, it was not as generous to Mr. Bushs other foreign aid innovation: the Millennium Challenge Corporation, an agency that aims to reduce poverty through grants to well-governed developing countries.
It approved continuing last years spending level of 1,75 billion dollar for the agency, far short of the 3 billion Mr. Bush requested for this year. Some Democrats in Congress have complained that the agency has been too slow to spend the money it has and to show results.
Still, this weeks progress on global health provides a marker of how much both parties have changed since the Clinton years.
Then, the Republican Senator Jesse Helms attacked foreign aid as money poured down a rathole before he had a change of heart. President Clinton, now a leading advocate for global AIDS treatment and prevention programs, failed to muster an American response commensurate with the scale of the dying, many critics say.
Kilde: The Push Journal
