Congress passes, President signs continuing resolution for FY 2013

Funding for HIV through PEPFAR "took a hit while the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria got a boost last week when the House and Senate passed a Continuing Resolution bill to avoid a government shutdown and continue funding the government through Oct. 1, the end of fiscal year 2013," the Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog reports (Aziz, 3/26). Politico 44 notes that President Obama signed the continuing budget resolution into law on Tuesday (Slack, 3/26). "Under the resolution, PEPFAR is slated to receive $4.067 billion, a $176 million ... cut from the FY 2012 level of $4.243 billion," "Science Speaks" writes, adding, "An additional five percent cut from the automatic across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration, means PEPFAR's total is $3.863 billion -- $380 million below FY 2012 spending and the lowest funding level since FY 2007." The blog continues, "In contrast, the Global Fund's new funding under the resolution is $1.648 billion, up 27 percent, or $348 million from the $1.3 billion received in FY 2012. With the five percent cut from sequestration, the Global Fund will still get more than last year: $1.566 billion for FY 2013" (3/26). "The support was announced in a press release by the Global Fund," Intellectual Property Watch notes (Burke, 3/25). Additional information about the FY13 Continuing Resolution is available from the Kaiser Family Foundation's "Policy Tracker" (3/21).