Legislative Updates: A Recap and Looking Ahead!
International Family Planning
Looking back at the FY 2008 Foreign Operations Appropriations bill, there is good and bad news. The good news is that this omnibus spending bill included $461 million for U.S. international Family Planning/Reproductive Health programs. This is the higher level that was contained in the Senate bill and represents an increase of $21 million above current levels and a more than 25 percent increase above the amount requested by the President.
To our dismay however, the measure approved by both the House and Senate to provide an exemption from the Global Gag Rule -- enabling foreign family planning organizations otherwise ineligible for U.S. FP/RH assistance to continue to receive U.S.-donated contraceptives -- was dropped by congressional negotiators in the face of an unwavering veto threat from the President. Unfortunately the Senate-passed amendment to fully overturn the Gag Rule was also dropped.
The bill also set aside a U.S. contribution of $40 million to the UN Population Fund. This was a $6 million increase above the $34 million approved by Congress in FY 2007. The UNFPA contribution still remains subject to the existing "Kemp-Kasten" restriction, a little-known provision that was first applied to foreign aid appropriations bills in 1985. Kemp-Kasten prohibits foreign aid funding for any organization that "supports or participates in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization," as determined by the President. This provision has enabled the Bush administration to deny more than $150 million in funding to UNFPA for the last six years.
However, the spending bill includes House-passed language requiring a Kemp-Kasten determination within six months of enactment of the bill and stipulating that the decision must be accompanied by a comprehensive analysis and the evidence used in making the determination. This is a step forward! In addition, the bill includes a requirement that any amount withheld from UNFPA under Kemp-Kasten be reprogrammed to USAID for bilateral "family planning, maternal, and reproductive health activities."
The omnibus spending bill also contains a provision approved by both the House and Senate nullifying the "abstinence-until-marriage" earmark of bilateral HIV/AIDS prevention funding. By waiving this restriction mandating at least one-third of all HIV/AIDS prevention funding be limited to abstinence-until-marriage programs, this measure will provide flexibility to the federal Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC) in programming prevention funding in developing countries.
Domestic Family Planning and Abstinence-Only Programs
Title X, the Domestic Family Planning Program, received a $17 million increase this year. In FY 2007, Title X received $283 million. This is significant because Title X has not seen an increase in funding since President Bush took office.
Abstinence-Only Programs will be funded at $113.4 million. There was ZERO increase this year - otherwise known as "flat funding" - which is a victory!! However, there is still quite a bit of work to be done to ensure that funding is cut or zeroed out in the FY 2009 budget.
What's Next?
Now more than ever, we have an opportunity to influence real change at the local and national level for issues like eradicating poverty, empowering women and girls, and providing universal access to education, reproductive and basic health care and voluntary family planning. Through collaborative events, presentations and trainings, Global Population and Environment Program staff and volunteers will continue speaking out on important global health and environment issues.
See our legislative priorities for 2008.
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