In late July, a US House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee, now controlled by the Republican party, moved to slash funding to the World Bank and other multilateral institutions. The draft legislation, which must first be approved by the full appropriations committee and then agreed by the US Senate, allocates only $1.6 billion for multilateral assistance, a reduction of $729 million from last year and $2.1 billion below the request of US president Barack Obama. In addition, the bill eliminates funding for the Bank-housed Clean Technology Fund and Strategic Climate Fund (see Update 76), and any funding for the requested general capital increases for multilateral development banks (see Update 70). The legislators also sought to defund the increased US commitment to lend to the IMF under the New Arrangements to Borrow (see Update 65).