Legislative Update: House and Senate Pass
FY 2005 Omnibus Appropriations Bill
November, 30, 2004

While the Omnibus is not set to be signed into law until early December, the legislation was passed by both the House and Senate and will not be otherwise affected by the delayed enactment. The foreign operations account was funded at $19.8 billion in the Omnibus bill, however, that level will be reduced by 0.83 percent to reflect an across the board recession that was applied to the final bill to provide additional resources for the MCA, NASA and other select programs.

Core Accounts Sees Gains

Appropriators boosted funding for core development and humanitarian assistance accounts above the levels contained in President's budget request and above what Congress enacted in FY2004. Overall, funding for non-AIDS funding in the Child Survival account, development assistance programs, and disaster and refugee assistance was increased by nearly $255 million over last year's levels and nearly $307 million above the President's 05 budget request. The major increases were in the Development Assistance account, which saw a boost of $83 million over last year and $131 million above the President's request and in the Disaster Assistance account which was $116 million above the FY2004 levels to reflect the famine prevention funds that were added to the account. However, there were also some small increases for refugee assistance, child and maternal health, infectious diseases and international programs.

Total funding for HIV/AIDS will come in at $2.9 billion--a slight increase over the President's request for HIV/AIDS. Of the $2.9 billion, $2.3 billion for HIV/AIDS is funded within the foreign operations bill, and the remaining $600 million is funded in the Labor HHS appropriations bill. Appropriators allocated $1.385 billion for the President's AIDS initiative which is below the President's request of $1.450 billion. The Global Fund will receive a total funding level of $437.8 million ($337.8 from foreign operations and $100 m from Labor HHS). The Global Fund is funded at $250 million in new money and the remaining $87.8 million is from unobligated funds for the Global Fund in the FY 2004 enacted bill. About $600 million for HIV/AIDS is funded within the Child Survival and Health account and a small amount from other accounts in the foreign operations bill.

After days of negotiations between appropriators and the White House, funding for the Millennium Challenge Account was finally settled at $1.5 billion, one billion below the President's request of $2.5 billion. Ten percent of these funds are to be used for assistance to help select countries qualify for the Millennium Challenge Account.  

Appropriators allocated $311 million for all of Sudan in the FY 2005 foreign operations budget.  The bill also includes anm additional $93 million in emergency assistance for humanitarian and security assistance to Darfur, Sudan. Of that amount, $75 million is to be used for security purposes and $18 million is for humanitarian assistance.

Total funding for Afghanistan is $980 million. Within the $980 million,  $50 million is to be used for assisting women and girls, and nearly $8 million in assistance is for supporting women-led Afghan NGOs.

Several accounts were funded at below the President's request level. Peace Corps is funded at $320 million, about $80 million the President's request level of $401 million and the World Bank's IDA is funded at $850 million.