The United States Senate has moved to exempt the global anti-AIDS programme, President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), from major foreign aid cuts proposed by President Donald Trump’s administration.
This development offers hope to millions of people living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria and other developing countries.
The decision follows pressure from key Republican senators who resisted a White House-backed plan to slash $400 million from PEPFAR.
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First launched in 2003 under President George W. Bush, the government says PEPFAR has provided life-saving antiretroviral treatment and healthcare support to more than 25 million people worldwide.
After a closed-door meeting on Tuesday with Senate Republicans, White House Office of Management and Budget Director, Russell Vought confirmed that the administration would support a substitute amendment that leaves PEPFAR funding intact, The Hill, an American newspaper, reports.
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“There is a substitute amendment that does not include the PEPFAR rescission, and we’re fine with that,” Mr Vought told reporters, adding that the overall size of the spending cuts package would remain about $9 billion.
The amendment means the legislation must return to the House of Representatives for another round of voting before a Friday deadline.
Why it matters
In Nigeria and other developing countries, PEPFAR plays a critical role in the national HIV response, approximately funding up to 90 per cent of the country’s HIV treatment programmes.
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The initiative has committed more than $6 billion to Nigeria, strengthening testing, treatment and health systems.
Public health officials and civil society groups had raised alarm over the proposed cuts, warning that any reduction could further put millions at risk of treatment interruption.
Just last month, a UNAIDS report warned that abrupt US aid withdrawals had already destabilised supply chains, forced the closure of some HIV treatment facilities, and left thousands of healthcare workers out of jobs in countries like South Africa.
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It also warned that analysis suggests four million additional AIDS-related deaths between now and 2029, including 300,000 additional children’s deaths, if programmes permanently lose PEPFAR’s support.
In response to the US aid cuts, Nigeria’s National Assembly approved an additional N300 billion for the health sector in the 2025 budget.
The government also approved N4.8 billion for the procurement of 150,000 HIV treatment packs under the 2024/2025 HIV Programme Alignment and also announced plans to absorb health workers into the public health workforce.
Republican pushback
PREMIUM TIMES gathered that the move to exempt PEPFAR followed resistance from several Republican senators who argued that slashing the programme’s funding would undermine decades of progress in the global HIV/AIDS fight.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune was quoted by The Hill as saying he planned to hold two procedural votes on Tuesday to advance the package.
These include a motion to discharge the legislation from the Senate Appropriations Committee and another to move it forward on the Senate floor.
“Rescissions have been a part of the process around here for a long time, not only in the annual appropriations process,” Mr Thune said, noting that past presidents from both parties had submitted similar proposals to Congress.
He added that the current package represented only a fraction of the federal budget. “What we’re talking about here is one tenth of one per cent of all federal spending,” he added. “That’s one-thousandths of the federal budget that’s included in this rescissions package.”
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