Senate Republicans remain wary of eliminating the popular and successful global HIV/AIDS program PEPFAR, as they face down a July 18 deadline to vote on President Trump’s first tranche of rescissions requests.

In his rescissions request to Congress last month, Trump asked that $900 million budgeted for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) be cancelled. The House has already passed Trump’s rescissions, and now the Senate must make the final move.

The historically bipartisan HIV program, which was started under President George W. Bush, has been subject to heightened Republican scrutiny in recent years. However, it still has staunch defenders on both sides of the aisle.

At the forefront of the opposition to eliminating PEPFAR is Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

“I want to strike the rescission of funds for PEPFAR, which has an enormous record of success, having saved some 26 million lives over the course of the program, as well as preventing nearly 8 million infants from receiving AIDS from their infected mothers,” Collins said.

“So I can't imagine why we would want to terminate that program.”

According to other GOP appropriators, support for PEPFAR among Republicans remains strong.

“I think most Republicans are probably pretty supportive of that particular component of the foreign aid that is delivered. It is about as successful as any foreign aid that we do authorize and appropriate for,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.).

Under the rescissions process, the........

© The Hill