Estimating budget sequestration's impact on global health, foreign aid

Feb 20 2013

Writing in the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition's (USGLC) blog, Molly Lester, government relations associate at the USGLC, highlights a report (.pdf) released last week by the House Appropriations Committee Democrats that outlines the potential impact of budget sequestration on different agencies and issues. "From embassy security to global health to international financial institutions, the report concludes sequestration would hinder diplomacy and development programs around the world and reverse progress on aid reform efforts," she writes and details specifics from the report (2/15). In related news, amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, last week released an update to its July 2012 paper (.pdf) on "the potential impact of budget sequestration on U.S. government-funded global health programing," according to the amfAR website (2/15). The Washington Post's "World Views" blog cites amfAR Director of Public Policy Chris Collins as saying, "These would be unprecedented cuts to global health. ... If the U.S. cuts back effort in this area, I'm worried about the signal it sends to other donors" (Khazan, 2/18).