Senate Appropriations Committee approves FY13 labor, health, human services spending bill

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday passed the FY 2013 Labor, Health & Human Services, Education and Related Agencies appropriations bill by 16-14, The Hill's "On the Money" blog reports. "Overall, the spending bill provides $158.8 billion for 2013, $8.8 billion more than the House is expected to provide in its bill, which is heading for a markup as soon as next week," according to the blog (Wasson, 6/14). "A report [.pdf] released by the committee provided the funding levels for global health programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which comprises a portion of the Global Health Initiative (GHI) budget, and the John E. Fogarty International Center. Additional funding for global health programs and research conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is not yet available," according to the Kaiser Family Foundation's "Policy Tracker" (6/14). The Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog reports that the bill "maintains funding for the CDC's Global AIDS Program at its current funding level of $117.118 million" (Barton, 6/15).

More detailed information on the international health aspects of the bill is available on the Kaiser Family Foundation's "Policy Tracker."