Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report

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  • Ending Poverty and Hunger: Meeting the Challenge of Millennium Development Goal 1 11/24
  • The Global Food Crisis: "The Silent Tsunami" The Brookings Institutions "will host a discussion on nutrition, school feeding programs and food security in the developing world, featuring World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick; Josette Sheeran, executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme; and Samuel Worthington, president and CEO of InterAction." 11/24
  • A Call to Copenhagen – Health Effects of Climate Change "Members of the press are invited to the unveiling and policy discussion of a major international study on the Public Health Impacts of Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions being published in Lancet, just in time for the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), one of the National Institutes of Health, is sponsoring the event which will feature speakers from around the world gathered in Washington, DC and at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine participating via live video conferencing." 11/25

Senate Committee Approves Bill To Fund State Department Global Health Programs, Global Fund

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Friday, July 10, 2009

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday voted 29-1 to pass a $48.69 billion draft bill to "fund the State Department and foreign affairs activities in fiscal 2010," CQ reports. "Global health programs would receive $7.8 billion, which is $434 million more than fiscal 2009 funding and $178 million more than the administration request. The bill would provide $5.7 billion to fight HIV/AIDS and $700 million for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria," CQ writes. The amount allocated to the Global Fund exceeds Obama's request by $100 million but is "in line with fiscal 2009 funding," according to the news service.

The bill would provide $628.5 million for family planning programs, including $50 million for the U.N. Population Fund. The Senate panel also adopted an amendment by Rep. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., that "would make permanent Obama’s decision earlier this year to revoke a policy prohibiting U.S. aid to overseas organizations that promote or perform abortions," CQ reports (Webber, 7/9).

"The policy in effect under President George W. Bush had banned U.S. taxpayer money … from going to international family planning groups that either offer abortions or provide information, counseling or referrals about abortion as a family planning method," according to AP/Google.com. This amendment would give the Obama policy "the force of law. That means the next Republican president would not be able to put the ban back in place with the stroke of a pen as has been recent practice," writes the newswire (Taylor, 7/9).

The Senate Appropriations Committee's press release includes a break down of the bill's funding (7/9).

The House of Representatives on Thursday passed a "$48.8 billion spending bill to bolster U.S. foreign policy and aid efforts," the Washington Post reports (Pelofsky & Cornwell, 7/9).

The Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report is published by the Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2009 Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.