[Response to Questions on Population Planning Assistance Provision of P.L. 98-473]

Congressional members requested a GAO opinion on whether a provision on population planning assistance contained in the Foreign Assistance and Related Programs Appropriation Act, 1985, authorized the Agency for International Development (AID) to withhold and redirect a portion of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities' (UNFPA) funds. The AID Administrator determined that UNFPA was managing a program in China that supported coercive abortion and involuntary sterilization, which violated the law's provision, so the withheld funds were reprogrammed for other voluntary family planning programs. GAO held that it would not comment on the matter because it was the subject of ongoing litigation.