Devex: Set of congressional budget hearings lay out U.S. aid funding
“Congressional appropriators met this week to approve the United States foreign aid budget, once again pushing back on President Donald Trump’s proposed cuts and keeping funding at about the same levels as last fiscal year. There was some disagreement during the House Committee on Appropriations hearing however, that might point to trouble passing the bill. … The bill includes language that would codify the Mexico City policy, or ‘global gag rule,’ and language about global warming and funding coal projects, which troubled Democrats. The bill states: ‘None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be made available for the United Nations Population Fund. 20 (b) None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act for global health assistance may be made available to any foreign nongovernmental organization that promotes or performs abortion, except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term’…” (Saldinger/Igoe, 6/22).