“Are we going to fund this forever?” asked Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a Republican from Florida, at an appropriations committee hearing about PEPFAR, the U.S. government’s global HIV/AIDS program.
That was the looming question, along with how PEPFAR could be effectively wound down and programs transferred to individual country governments, the private sector, or other donors, at the National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Subcommittee meeting on Tuesday.
As lawmakers consider what to fund for fiscal year 2026, they need to understand where things stand with PEPFAR, address problems with the program and a violation of a law that prohibits funding for abortions during the Biden administration, and think about its future, said Diaz-Balart, who chairs the subcommittee.
About the author
Adva Saldinger@AdvaSal
Adva Saldinger is a Senior Reporter at Devex where she covers development finance, as well as U.S. foreign aid policy. Adva explores the role the private sector and private capital play in development and authors the weekly Devex Invested newsletter bringing the latest news on the role of business and finance in addressing global challenges. A journalist with more than 10 years of experience, she has worked at several newspapers in the U.S. and lived in both Ghana and South Africa.
