screw it, I went and got the actual numbers.
Overseas, the US has launched an ambitious $15 billion, five-year Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Since the announced Emergency Plan in 2003 the United States has provided $5.2 billion for the fight against global HIV/AIDS. The 2006 Budget requests an additional $3.2 billion for this effort. The U.S. Government has made remarkable progress during the Emergency Plan's first year of implementation. In the first eight months of President Bush's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the United States supported training for more than 312,000 service providers and supported more than 14,000 sites where prevention, treatment, and care services are provided in 15 countries in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean.
Under the Emergency Plan, the Administration is committed to preventing seven million new HIV-infections; treating two million HIV-infected people; and caring for 10 million people affected by HIV/AIDS, including orphans.
As part of these efforts, the United States is also working with international organizations like UNAIDS, the World Health Organization, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. The Bush Administration provided the founding contribution to the Global Fund, and the United States remains the world's largest donor.
While the United States response to the HIV/AIDS crisis is an outstanding example, this Nation has always been a world leader in providing hunger, disaster, and other humanitarian relief. When an earthquake and tsunami struck the Indian Ocean basin in December 2004, the United States led recovery efforts with a coordinated response with our armed forces deployed to the region. Assistance included food aid, medical assistance, water filtration, temporary shelter, airlift support, and long-term development assistance.
The United States has traditionally been the most generous of the donor governments in providing humanitarian assistance in disaster relief, and this recent display of assistance was no different. The Department of Defense and the United States Agency for International Development conducted one of the largest relief efforts in the agency’s history to save lives, to lessen suffering, and to reduce the economic effect of the disaster.
The United States, which comprises roughly 25 percent of the world's economic output, provides more than 40 percent of the world's food aid. In 2004, U.S. food aid protected vulnerable populations around the world, with more than $700 million donated to the food emergencies in the Darfur region in Sudan, as well as crises in Ethiopia and southern Africa. In 2004, the United States led the world—both in timeliness and funding levels—in assisting more than one million internally-displaced persons in the Darfur region of Sudan and 200,000 Sudanese refugees in Chad. The 2006 Budget continues this strong level of support, addressing food and non-food needs of victims of the conflict in Darfur. The 2006 Budget supports the Administration’s continuing efforts to prevent widespread famine and proposes major new efforts to make food aid more effective by requesting a portion of it as cash assistance, which allows emergency food aid to be provided more quickly and more flexibly.
In 2002, the President proposed the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) to provide new incentives for developing nations to pursue successful economic growth policies and democratic reforms. Through MCA, contributions are linked to responsible actions by developing nations. MCA rewards nations that root out corruption, respect human rights, adhere to the rule of law, invest in better health care, better schools, and broader immunization, and have more open markets and sustainable budget policies. Using funds in the MCA, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) works with eligible countries to support proposals with clear objectives to help those countries’ poorest citizens lift themselves out of poverty. While the President’s proposal has not received the funding initially envisioned, the Budget would keep it on track to reach $5 billion in annual funding by 2007. The Congress increased MCA funding from $1 billion in 2004 to $1.5 billion in 2005. The 2006 Budget provides $3 billion to help participating countries help themselves become prosperous democratic states. These investments aid our national security by helping nations avoid becoming havens for terrorists, who thrive in failed states. But these investments also respond to the humanitarian needs of people who have known only poverty and dependence.
The 2006 Budget also reinforces the Administration’s commitment to finding durable solutions for the more than 12 million refugees worldwide in need of protection. The United States continues offering permanent resettlement to the most vulnerable among these populations. Refugee admissions rose by more than 80 percent in 2004. The United States is the world's largest donor to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the world's leader for accepting them . The 2006 Budget provides a funding increase of $85 million to support the growing number of refugees being resettled in the United States.
President Bush is committed to increasing American volunteerism overseas and, accordingly, has asked for increases over prior year’s appropriations in Peace Corps’ budget every year since taking office. The Administration's budget request of $345 million continues that support. Peace Corps volunteers—7,733 strong in 2004—are at their highest level in 29 years. These dedicated individuals reflect the best of American values and compassion by working in such diverse fields as education, health, information technology, business development, the environment, and agriculture. The 2006 Budget will help Peace Corps open at least two new posts and maintain the existing number of volunteers.