WASHINGTON (AP) - Dealing a blow to President Bush a week before the Group of Eight economic summit in Scotland, the House voted to cut his funding proposal for an assistance program considered a cornerstone of his campaign to spread democracy around the world.
Money for the program, the Millennium Challenge Account, is included in the $20.3 billion foreign aid bill the House approved on a 393-32 vote Tuesday.
Overall, the bill for next year is roughly 11 percent less than the president proposed but nearly 4 percent more than this year's funding. The Senate has yet to write its version of the bill, which provides health, education, counter-narcotics and military assistance to poor nations.
House lawmakers chose to pad several of the president's other proposals with the $1.25 billion they cut from his request for the Millennium Challenge Account, a program that gives countries extra money if they pursue political, economic and human rights reforms.
...more at link (including the programs that are getting the $$$ that this program isn't)...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5107302,00.htmlI don't know much about this program...although I am incredibly skeptical about anything Bush wants to do about 'spreading democracy!'
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