What is the AIDS prevention program Sen. Curtis wants to protect from DOGE cuts?

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Sen. Curtis opposes cuts to PEPFAR, a global AIDS relief program.
• Proposed cuts aim to reduce $8 million from foreign aid, including PEPFAR.
• Republicans cite budget concerns; some fear funds support abortion-related activities.

WASHINGTON — The Senate is poised to vote this week on President Donald Trump's rescissions package requesting roughly $9.4 billion in spending reductions, including proposed cuts to funds allocated toward the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS.

The legislation would cut more than $8 million approved for foreign aid programs, including the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a program started under the George W. Bush administration that focuses on prevention, care and treatment across the world. The proposed cuts have raised concerns among some Senate Republicans, including Utah Sen. John Curtis, who may push to remove that provision from the final package.

"I've got to get comfortable with it, and right now, I'm not comfortable with it," Curtis told the Deseret News last week. "But I'm not the only one, and I think there's a broad consensus that we'll deal with it in a way that works for us."

Other GOP senators, such as Maine Sen. Susan Collins, have expressed similar concerns.

"I've made very, very clear what my position is on the rescissions bill, that there are some cuts that I can support, but I'm not going to vote to cut global health programs," Collins said on Thursday.

What is PEPFAR?

Since its inception in 2003, the U.S. has contributed more than $100 billion to PEPFAR, saving more than 25 million lives and preventing millions of HIV cases. The global initiative is the largest commitment to address a single disease in history, according to HIV.gov.

Proponents of the program argue it has been critical to providing treatments to millions of people across the world, reducing mother-to-child transmission, and stabilizing HIV rates in more than 50 countries.

The organization has been supported by both Republican and Democratic presidents, and even has the support of faith-based organizations across the globe. Those partnerships help communities of faith with prevention, treatment and care while attempting to break down stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS.

Why do Trump and other Republican leaders want to cut funding?

Republican leaders have cited budgetary concerns related to PEPFAR, but proposed cuts particularly target GOP concerns that the funds are being indirectly used for organizations that promote access to abortion and other anti-conservative views.

Republican lawmakers specifically pointed to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that showed some funds went toward paying health care workers who performed at least 21 abortions between April 2022 and June 2024 in the country of Mozambique. Republicans have called for investigations into the matter and for rescinding official funding.

"The CDC must be investigated for its misuse of PEPFAR funds, and those who have violated long-standing U.S. laws that protect life must be held accountable," Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said in a statement earlier this year.

Despite concerns that cuts to PEPFAR would be harmful to the organization's mission, the Trump administration has defended the proposed cuts as only gutting funds that are not considered essential.

"These cuts are surgical and specifically preserve life-saving assistance," Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought told senators last month.

Can lawmakers remove PEPFAR from the rescissions request?

As a handful of Republicans have expressed concerns with the cuts to PEPFAR, some have suggested introducing amendments to remove the language from the full package.

Under Senate rules, the rescissions bill only requires a simple majority because it includes only budgetary changes. However, that opens the process up to an unlimited amendment process, giving Republicans a chance to remove some of the provisions before final passage.

If they are successful in doing so, the bill would then need to go back to the House for approval before it can head to Trump's desk for his signature. The House is expected to vote on those changes on Thursday, according to the vote schedule shared with lawmakers obtained by the Deseret News.

That puts lawmakers right up against the deadline on Friday, the day on which the bill must be passed and signed by Trump, otherwise all halted funding must be continued.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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