Your FY24 appropriations advocacy made a difference- now let's take action on FY25!
Over a year after we began our fiscal year 2024 appropriations campaign, Congress finally passed the bills needed to fund the government through September. While House Republicans celebrated a 6% cut to the foreign aid spending bill in their press releases, your tireless advocacy led to our global health policy issues being protected by members of Congress and our basic education programs receiving a minimal cut.
The topline global health account received a 5% cut in the final bill, but our global health accounts were maintained or even expanded! Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance received a $10 million increase, Nutrition got $5 million more, and Tuberculosis was flat funded at $394.5 million. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria received $1.65 billion, a decrease in line with the legal rule capping the U.S. contribution to 1/3 of their funding.
We were also able to include language requiring USAID to analyze the equity of their maternal and child health programs. The goal is to ensure that high-impact interventions reach the most vulnerable populations. The international education topline (which includes higher education) was cut by nearly 10%, but the Basic Education account by only 5%, and GPE by 6.5%.
These drops to topline amounts are concerning, but the final numbers reveal that your work made a difference. You were able to influence our government and provide much needed resources to health and education programs.
After pushing for our FY24 numbers for so long, Congress’s delays means it’s now time to jump into FY25 advocacy! President Biden has already released his Budget Request, calling for an increase to Maternal and Child Health and flat-funding for Gavi and Tuberculosis. This budget is in line with the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 and is not ambitious, but does maintain strong support for global health. One positive note is it does include the Administration’s intent to make a four-year pledge to Gavi this year as part of the upcoming Replenishment– but with no new funding pledge yet. So we still need Congress to be champions for these critical issues and help drive home increases for FY25.
The actual funding needs are higher than Congress and the Administration have called for. You can make this clear by asking your Members to support our asks in their personal requests to the SFOPS subcommittee, and by urging them to sign onto “Dear Colleague” letters.
The FY24 results prove that RESULTS volunteers can influence Congress. Let’s make a strong statement this year that maintaining funding isn’t enough. Global poverty policies must be prioritized and expanded in FY25.