Congress talks supplies
1st June 2007
On June 21, the US House of Representatives voted on a provision to exempt overseas NGO family planning providers from the restrictions of the Mexico City Policy that cuts off the flow of US-donated contraceptives and condoms. Also included was a provision that repeals the abstinence-only funding restrictions under PEPFAR (the President´s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) that require at least one-third of all US HIV/AIDS prevention funding to be spent on abstinence programmes. These provisions were attached to the US$34.2 billion foreign aid appropriations bill for 2008, which the House approved 241 to 178. The bill was then adopted by the full Senate Appropriations Committee on June 28. The White House has threatened to veto the bill if it maintains the two provisions.
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June 2007, RHSC