Congress urged to adopt higher funding levels for foreign aid

Published: 2003-11-17

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The House-Senate conference committee negotiating the foreign operations appropriations bill should fund programs to help the world's poor at the maximum possible levels, the chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on International Policy and the executive director of Catholic Relief Services told members of Congress. In a Nov. 10 letter, Bishop John H. Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Fla., who is chairman of the international policy committee, and Ken Hackett of CRS, urged the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee to fight for higher funding for programs to combat infectious diseases including HIV/AIDS and for the Millennium Challenge Account. The Senate version of the bill provides $18.4 billion for foreign aid, including $2.4 billion for fighting infectious diseases and $2.4 billion for the Millennium Challenge Account, which will provide financial assistance to poor countries that are working to fight poverty and corruption. The House bill would give $1.4 billion to the infectious diseases program and $800 million to the Millennium Challenge Account. The conference committee was scheduled to meet Nov. 17 to work out the differences between the versions.

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