Recent news
February 2012
President Obama releases fiscal year 2013 budget
February 14, 2012 -- Yesterday, President Obama sent Congress his $3.8 trillion budget proposal for fiscal year (FY) 2013. While the majority of increased spending would be allocated to domestic programs, there are several decreases in global health spending compared with FY 2012 levels. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s global health tracker, among the notable decreases the White House has proposed are cuts to the Global Health Initiative (GHI), most global health accounts at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), as well as some funding levels at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Department of Defense (DoD). All of these agencies play a critical role in supporting global health research and development (R&D) for new health products such as vaccines, drugs, diagnostic tools, and microbicides.
Under the president’s budget, the GHI, a program created by the Obama Administration that includes a focus on innovation, would receive at total decrease of about 3.5 percent, falling from over $8.8 billion in FY 2012 to a little over $8.5 billion requested for FY 2013. Under the request, funding for USAID’s HIV/AIDS account would be cut by 5.7 percent. Funding for USAID’s tuberculosis account would be reduced by 10 percent, and the agency’s malaria account would be cut by 4.8 percent. Funding for USAID’s neglected tropical disease account would receive one of the largest cuts of 24.7 percent.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is the largest public funder of health research worldwide, would receive a 6.7 percent increase for its global HIV/AIDS programs, bringing the total to $388 million. The NIH would receive the same amount of funding as FY 2012, or $147 million, for its global malaria programs. The CDC would also receive flat funding for its global HIV/AIDS and malaria programs, while the DoD would receive zero funding for its global HIV/AIDS and malaria programs. In terms of international affairs overall, the President’s budget request would provide $51.6 billion in funding for the Department of State and USAID, an increase of 1.6 percent compared with FY 2012 levels.
