The White House’s budget chief defended a $9.4 billion clawback of congressionally approved funds on Wednesday, telling a room full of wary senators that rescinding billions of dollars in foreign aid was “not a fade on soft power,” but “a fade on waste, fraud and abuse.”
For three hours, Russell Vought said that the clawback — which came in the form of a rescissions package brought by President Donald Trump earlier this month — would not touch “lifesaving aid.” Instead, he said it would slice away programs the administration disagreed with, such as a “$330,000 [grant] for LGBTQ advocacy in Uganda” and a “$9.3 million [grant] to advise Russian doctors on how to perform abortions.”
Both of those programs, Vought said, were funded through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR.