Today's the Day: Marking Up the Millennium Challenge Account 2008 Budget

Today at 3:00, House appropriators are scheduled to mark-up the FY2008 State-Foreign Operations spending bill. Insiders expect the subcommittee will provide less funding than the president requested overall but significantly more for a program to combat AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. The Millennium Challenge Account is rumored to come in at $1.8 billion, a touch above last year's appropriation perhaps signaling a nod of continued support for the programt despite the subcommittee's concerns over low disbursement rates.Followers of the blog will know that I think a strong case could have been made for a figure closer to the president's $3 billion request. Check back this afternoon for the final outcome.