Appropriations

After a tumultuous year of proposed program cuts and eliminations, Congress has agreed to reject them and instead has maintained funding for domestic HIV prevention and treatment programs on a bipartisan basis. Now, the Trump administration must focus its attention on properly implementing these programs in order to get the nation back on track to end HIV in the U.S.

This is not a bill for making America healthy again, but a disastrous bill that will reignite HIV in the United States. We urge Congress to reject these reckless cuts. Eliminating all HIV prevention means the end of state and local testing and surveillance programs, educational programs, and linkage to lifesaving care and treatment, along with PrEP. It will translate into an increased number of new HIV infections, which will be costlier to treat in the long run. At a time when we have the tools to prevent HIV, including new long-acting forms of PrEP, we must not abandon the bipartisan progress our nation has made in combatting HIV.

Today, on a bipartisan basis, the Senate Appropriations Committee rejected the Trump administration’s proposed elimination of CDC’s HIV prevention and surveillance programs. On a vote of 26 to 3, the Committee approved the Fiscal Year 2026 Labor, HHS Appropriations bill that maintains funding for existing domestic HIV prevention along with the care, treatment, and PrEP programs that were included in the president’s budget.