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Congress Reviews Funding for Humanitarian and
Development Assistance (Fiscal Year 2003)
When the Bush
administration submitted its budget in January for Fiscal Year
2003, which begins October 1, it proposed a minimal increase in
funding for humanitarian
and development assistance. In fact, funding for some parts of
this assistance, known as the "150 Account," was decreased
substantially, including some of the programs most important for
women and children around the world.
At present,
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is reviewing the funding
for this account. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Mike DeWine
(R-OR) are leading the efforts in the Senate to substantially
increase the amount of funding for this account.
President
Bush Announces $10 Billion Increase in Development Assistance
President Bush
has announced he would seek $10 billion in development assistance
to developing countries over three years, beginning in Fiscal Year
2003 or 2004. These funds would go into a new account called the
"Millennium Challenge Account." Bush's proposal was made in
conjunction with the United Nations International Conference on
Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico March 18-22 where
Bush and other world leaders focused on global poverty.
Read
Save the Children President and CEO Charles MacCormack's
statement
Read
President Bush's speech to the Inter-American Development
Bank
InterAction
Coalition Seeks to Double Humanitarian and Development Assistance
Over the Next Five Years
InterAction's
Global Partnership for Effective Assistance, of which Save the
Children President and CEO
Charles MacCormack is co-chair, is seeking to double the
amount of funds in the "150 Account" over the next five years.
InterAction, comprised of 160 non-governmental organizations, is
the largest alliance of U.S.-based humanitarian groups in the
United States. | 
