Congress Readies Injection of Funds

摘要

At a Senate hearing last May on the global spread of infectious diseases, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) chided the U.S. government for treating "one of the most serious threats we face with the same kind of naive optimism we did 20 years ago." Leahy, who persuaded the Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Foreign Operations to hold die hearing, included his colleagues in the blame: "Frankly, I am amazed that this topic has not received greater attention in. the Congress." Those urgings have had an effect. Last month, the Senate passed an appropriations bill that earmarks 30 million dollar in the budget of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to combat infectious diseases. And last week, a House committee held a hearing on a bill that calls for the USAID to spend 50 million dollar "for targeted global programs to end infectious diseases."