Why PEPFAR has bigger problems than reauthorization

Congressional authorization for the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, is all but certain to expire tomorrow. But that is far from the main threat to PEPFAR’s survival.

Because the program is written into federal law, “actual permission for the program to exist doesn’t expire,” even if PEPFAR’s authorization does, Katie Coester, the associate director of public policy and advocacy at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, told Devex. In addition, the U.S. Congress allocated money to PEPFAR in the budget it adopted earlier this month to keep it funded through the end of the fiscal year.

“As long as there is funding appropriated for the program, it can technically and legally continue,” Jennifer Kates, the director of the global health and HIV policy program at KFF, told Devex.