Funds will instead be spent on child survival and health programs of the U.S. Agency for International Development, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, according to the Associated Press.
Boucher said that after careful consideration of the law and other factors, the administration «came to the conclusion that that the U.N. Population Fund monies go to Chinese agencies that carry out coercive programs.»
Bush himself proposed $25 million for the United Nations Population Fund, an increase from the $21.5 million the fund got during the last year of the Clinton administration. Key lawmakers later agreed on $34 million for the agency.
The president has already signed into law the foreign aid bill that contains the $34 million. But when he did so in January, he noted in a statement that it gives him «additional discretion to determine the appropriate level of funding for the United Nations Population Fund.»
