House bill boosts US foreign aid funding, removes abortion restrictions

The U.S. House of Representatives passed its foreign state and foreign operations budget bill last week, approving a roughly 12% foreign aid spending increase for fiscal year 2022 and making a few policy statements — most notably about family planning and funding abortion.

The legislation appropriates about $62 billion for foreign affairs, with big boosts to global health security, climate change, and multilateral assistance.

The Senate will write its own appropriations bill, and the two will have to be reconciled before lawmakers can approve the final fiscal year 2022 budget, which they need to do before Sept. 30. It is also possible that they won’t come to an agreement in time and will once again pass a continuing resolution to keep the government running as they negotiate the budget bills further.

One of the most significant policy-related measures in the bill is language that permanently repeals the “global gag rule,” formally known as the Mexico City Policy. It also removes Helms amendment restrictions barring foreign aid funding from being used to pay for abortions that have long been included in budget bills.

“This action paves an unprecedented — and long overdue — pathway to permanently end the global gag rule, which has for decades stripped individual rights and destabilized entire health systems, while eliminating the harmful and discriminatory Helms amendment,” Seema Jalan, the executive director of the Universal Access Project, said in a statement. She added that she hoped it would lead to a United States foreign policy “that centers [on] the health, well-being, and self-determination of people everywhere.”

Beyond the policy changes, the legislation also raised funding levels for family planning — a $185 million increase in bilateral funding, and a $37.5 million boost for the U.N. Population Fund from the previous year. The combined $830 million is one of the biggest U.S. allocations for family planning in more than a decade.

Overall the bill includes about $10.6 billion for global health and pandemic prevention. It matches President Joe Biden’s budget request with an $810 million increase in global health security funding, raising the total funding to address the issues to $1 billion.

While some global health advocates told Devex they were disappointed to not see bigger increases in global health numbers in Biden’s budget request, they may be pleased to see more funding in the House bill. Funding for the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, is $150 million higher than the president’s request; family planning funding is about $176.3 million above his request, and overall funding for maternal and child health and infectious diseases is $440 million higher.

That’s not the only difference from the president’s budget request. The House bill also includes about $267 million more for basic education, with a $950 million allocation for basic education matching last year’s number.

Some of the environmental funding is a bit different, with the House bill including more funding for biodiversity, wildlife trafficking, and the Green Climate Fund. It also includes about $100 million less for the Clean Technology Fund than the president's request. The House bill also includes about $179 million to fund renewable energy, which was not in the president’s request.

The House bill also includes another policy directive: an increase of diversity and inclusion particularly in staffing at the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department, with some of the funding increase going to support those efforts. USAID gets $1.79 billion in the bill, an increase of $79 million.

Another area with a boost in funding, though one that aligns with the president’s request, is about $2 billion more for multilateral assistance, including to the World Bank’s International Development Association, the Global Environment Facility, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, and a new contribution to the International Monetary Fund’s Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust.

Other allocations of note:

• $8.53 billion humanitarian assistance — a $700 million boost.
• $3 billion to address climate change, including $1.6 billion for the Green Climate Fund.
• $1.6 billion for the Indo-Pacific and to counter the increasing influence of the Chinese government.
• $598 million for the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, up by $29 million, with increases to support administrative expenses and bolster the Office of Inspector General.
• $1.93 billion for contributions to peacekeeping activities.
• $1.66 billion to fully fund assessed contributions for international organizations, and human-rights-related arrears.
• $225 million (at least) for programs in the West Bank and Gaza, a $150 million increase.
• $860.6 million for Central America.
• $200 million for the Gender Equity and Equality Action Fund, $200 million to prevent and respond to gender-based violence, $150 million to support the Women, Peace and Security Strategy.