Advocacy Update ~ November 27, 2019
Fiscal Year 2020 Appropriations Agreement Reached
On November 21, President Trump signed into law a bipartisan Continuing Resolution (CR) that keeps the government open through December 20. This stopgap bill funds programs at 2019 levels and temporarily extends several authorities including $20 million to be made available for Ebola preparedness and response activities. Both House and Senate appropriators are eager to make progress towards providing the certainty of full-year funding to ensure program operators are better equipped to implement projects.
House Appropriations Chairwoman Nita Lowey and Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby recently reached an agreement on subcommittee allocations, or 302(b)s. When lawmakers return to Washington in December, they will have three weeks to finalize spending bills before the Continuing Resolution (CR) expires on December 20. While discussions are ongoing, it is most likely that all 12 spending bills will be combined into two or three packages and could be combined with a stopgap spending bill for the departments and agencies without full-year funding
25th Anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD)
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) which took place in Cairo in 1994. At that conference, 179 governments adopted a Programme of Action (PoA) designed to empower women and girls. This year, participants were encouraged to announce commitments to help fully realize the PoA first agreed to 25 years ago. On November 14, the United States issued a joint statement on behalf of Brazil, Belarus, Egypt, Haiti, Hungary, Libya, Poland, Senegal, St. Lucia, and Uganda. The statement in many ways conflicted with the core components of the PoA and was critical of the use of the terms such as “sexual and reproductive health and rights.”
Draft PEPFAR COP 2020 Guidance Available for Comment
The draft PEPFAR Country Operational Plan 2020 (COP 20) Guidance is available for public comment through December 13, 2019. This guidance that is provided to all PEPFAR countries and comments are welcome and encouraged. Information about submitting comments can be found here.
World Health Organization Executive Board Meeting
The 146th Session of the World Health Organization’s Executive Board is taking place February 3-8, 2020 in Geneva. In advance of the meeting, the WHO has released their report on the Involvement of Non-state Actors in WHO’s Governing Bodies. We are tracking this issue closely and will be pulling together a joint statement for the U.S. government and other member states. The provisional agenda for the meeting is also now available here.
This post was written by Kiki Kalkstein, Director of Advocacy and Engagement, and Rebecca Daedalus, Advocacy & Community Partnerships Coordinator.