Senate Republicans Drop ‘AIDS Relief’ Cuts From Rescissions Package

Senate Republicans are removing $400 million in proposed funding cuts to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program from a rescissions package ahead of a deadline at the end of this week.

The decision was announced after GOP senators met on Tuesday with White House Director Russell Vought regarding the measure designed to codify spending reductions in line with recommendations from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told reporters there was “a lot of interest among our members in doing something on the PEPFAR issue,” resulting in a “small modification” that leaves the rescissions package, which seeks to slash funds for programs Republicans deem to be wasteful and ideologically driven, at roughly $9 billion.

The GOP-led House narrowly passed the rescissions package in June following a request by the Trump administration. It sought to claw back $9.4 billion in “reckless spending,” as House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) told The Daily Wire, by targeting foreign aid projects and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides funds to NPR and PBS.

Under the Impoundment Control Act, lawmakers in Congress were given 45 days to act on the request, and it requires only a simple majority in the House and Senate — meaning the filibuster threshold can be ignored. The deadline is Friday, meaning the Senate and the House must both pass the revised measure in the next couple of days.

House Republicans had been urging the Senate not to make any changes, but they could end up approving the slimmer version, particularly after the White House reportedly gave the Senate its blessing to remove the PEPFAR section.

Rep. Mark Harris (R-NC) responded in particular to Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who said she wanted to strike the PEPFAR cuts from the rescissions package, contending the program was a success in saving millions of lives.

“All of that spending” is a far cry from PEPFAR’s original mission, to combat “the AIDS epidemic in Africa when it first started,” Harris told The Daily Wire.

In addition, a senior Trump administration official told The Daily Wire on Tuesday that “limited” program cuts to PEPFAR took aim at “LGBTQ education and capacity building — not core life-saving care.”

Democrat senators and the independents who caucus with them are likely to vote in unison against passing the measure, leaving Republicans and their slim majority unable to afford more than a couple GOP defectors. Vice President JD Vance might be needed for a tie-breaker.

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) announced on Monday that he came around on the rescissions package after the Trump administration helped find money that could be reallocated to continue grants for tribal broadcast services that offer “potentially lifesaving emergency alerts” in his state.