President Bush on Monday released his $2.8 trillion fiscal year 2008 budget proposal, which would allocate $5.4 billion for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the Wall Street Journal reports (Phillips, Wall Street Journal, 2/6).
Bush's budget proposal would allocate $4.2 billion for treatment, prevention and care initiatives to PEPFAR's 15 focus countries, as well as an additional $1.2 billion for global HIV/AIDS programs, disease research and contributions to partner organizations (President's FY 2008 budget, 2/5).
Included in the PEPFAR budget, Bush has asked for $300 million for the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and $491 million for other activities, including TB programs (PEPFAR.gov release, 2/2).
In addition to the PEPFAR funding, the budget proposal would provide $300 million for the President's Malaria Initiative and ongoing malaria programs worldwide (President's FY 2008 budget, 2/5).
The budget proposal also calls for $3 billion for the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a program meant to encourage economic and political reforms in developing countries, VOA News reports (VOA News, 2/5).
Bush's budget proposal comes a week after the House voted 286-140 to approve a $463 billion spending resolution (HJ Res 20) for FY 2007 that includes a $1.3 billion increase for PEPFAR.
The resolution would bring the total for PEPFAR to $4.5 billion and would allocate $724 million for the U.S. contribution to the Global Fund.
In addition, $248 million would be allocated to expand programs under PMI, an increase of $149 million. The Senate is expected to consider the bill this week (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 2/2).