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2d ago

Senate Approves Amendment to Protect PEPFAR Funding

Preserving PEPFAR’s funding in the rescission bill resolves a bipartisan dispute, sending the measure back to the House for approval.

FILE - Florence Makumene holds HIV medication that she received through funding from the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), along with her hospital records book, at her home in Harare, Zimbabwe, Feb. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Ufumeli, File)
PEPFAR's HIV/AIDS relief efforts narrowly escaped being stripped of funding.
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Overview

  • Senate Republicans led by Sen. Susan Collins voted to strip a proposed $400 million cut to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief from a $9 billion rescission bill.
  • The revised bill must return to the House for a second vote before it can reach President Trump’s desk for final approval.
  • PEPFAR has saved more than 25 million lives since its 2003 launch, but it has already experienced service interruptions after President Trump froze foreign aid and overhauled USAID earlier this year.
  • Fiscal year 2026 budget proposals from the Trump administration call for a 38 percent reduction in PEPFAR appropriations, deepening funding uncertainty.
  • A recent State Department audit in Mozambique uncovered that four PEPFAR-funded nurses performed 21 abortions since January 2021, marking the first compliance breach of its kind and triggering congressional oversight inquiries.