House spending bill includes $10 billion for global emergency response and additional $100 million for basic education

Every year, Congress decides how to spend the money in the U.S. federal budget in a process called “appropriations.” They “appropriate” money line-by-line to different programs. RESULTS urges lawmakers to support issues that build the foundation to end poverty – health, education, and economic opportunity.

This year, RESULTS advocates have asked U.S. policymakers to support global health programs – like the Global Fund to the Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, Gavi, and the USAID Tuberculosis program – which save millions of lives each year by accelerating progress toward ending some of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases. We also called on Congress to support nutrition and basic education programs, which are necessary to ensure that all children can survive and thrive.

This week, the House Appropriations Committee reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to several of these crucial programs. Their State and Foreign Operations (SFOPS) spending bill for fiscal year 2021 (FY21) passed out of the full committee. Most of the global health accounts and the education accounts that RESULTS volunteers focused on during our appropriations push (advocacy started back in January and continued with our March “Dear Colleague” work) were “flat funded” or received the same amount as FY2020. Although we were pushing for increases, there were very limited funds available for non-defense discretionary funds (which SFOPS falls under) under the Bipartisan Budget Agreement for Fiscal Years 2020 and 2021. See the chart below for amounts by account.

Overall, the bill provides $55.85 billion in regular non-emergency funds. The bill also includes an emergency title that provides $10 billion to respond to the global COVID-19 pandemic; including not less than $750 million for Gavi, and not less than $800 million for the Global Fund.

This is a good step forward, but not nearly at the funding levels RESULTS has advocated on during this push to both House and Senate over the past few months. RESULTS has urged members to push leadership to include $20 billion in foreign aid as part of a global response to the global pandemic in a supplemental funding bill. Having this response as part of a regular FY21 bill could delay the process and the dollars from reaching communities most in need. We are glad to see the House responding to the crisis at hand, but we will still keep up our advocacy on both House and Senate to include foreign aid in any next COVID-19 package.

Some highlights:

• This year, the Basic Education account received an increase of $100 million, the second consecutive year of increase. Also, as a special surprise, the House Appropriations committee voted to change the name of the Basic Education fund to the “Nita M. Lowey Basic Education Fund” in honor of Chairwoman Lowey, a longtime congressional champion on global education who is retiring this year.
• The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria was maintained at $1.56 billion and keeps the U.S. on the path of maintaining our 1/3 commitment to the Global Fund’s need. The report language in the bill (The Committee recommendation includes $1,560,000,000 for the second installment of the sixth replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria) along with remarks during the mark-up send a strong signal to other countries that the U.S. is committed fight against these diseases of poverty.