Bush Gets Aid of Democrats in Fighting Pandemics [NYT]

February 2, 2007

New York Times reporter Celia Dugger discusses what the new Democratic-led congress might mean for the future of foreign assistance.

CGD Senior Fellow, Todd Moss, expresses his concern for what this may mean for long-term development.

From the article:

But the new Democratic leadership agreed this week to give the administration $4.5 billion this year to combat the big three global pandemics, $500 million more than the president himself had requested and over $1 billion more than if the undertakings had been required to continue at the previous year’s spending levels.

“The politics of aid in this country probably has shifted on push-button issues like H.I.V./AIDS,” said Todd Moss, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development. “It’s the longer-term development that’s much harder to do and build political backing for. Those are the things that will come under pressure in a Washington with a split government.”