Ranking Member DeLauro Statement at PEPFAR Hearing

House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) delivered the following remarks at the National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Subcommittee's hearing to assess the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR):

-As Prepared For Delivery-

Thank you, Chairman Diaz-Balart and Ranking Member Frankel, for your leadership of this subcommittee. I am grateful for the opportunity to raise awareness for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, and I thank the Chairman for calling this hearing, and for his support of this program.

My thanks also go to today’s witnesses for appearing today bright and early, and for all they have done to build up this program: Dr. Dybul and Ms. Connor, thank you.

Over two decades, PEPFAR has saved 26 million lives around the world. Think about that. 26 million is roughly the population of the Chairman’s home state of Florida. The 26 million saved by PEPFAR are mothers and fathers, sons and daughters. They are teachers, nurses, farmers. 

Instead of facing death and despair, they are raising families, building their communities, and helping their home countries grow and develop. 

HIV/AIDS is not the death sentence it was just decades ago, and HIV prevention efforts are effective.

Do not take it from me – the State Department’s website says, “PEPFAR’s lifesaving work is enabled through the U.S. government’s unwavering commitment to the program and the American people’s compassion and generosity, as PEPFAR ensures every U.S. taxpayer dollar is optimally focused for impact.” 

It was PEPFAR’s platform that was utilized to help countries respond to COVID, and which is being used today to fight tuberculosis and more. Through Democratic and Republican Administrations, and Democratic and Republican Congresses, PEPFAR has held widespread bipartisan support. But PEPFAR is in dire straits. In working to abolish foreign assistance, Elon Musk and President Trump froze funding for PEPFAR, halting testing and treatment for HIV/AIDS patients around the world. 

After funding abruptly stopped, the State Department determined that portions of the PEPFAR program met their criteria for “lifesaving” and could be restarted. But PEPFAR is not fully functioning. Funding is not flowing. Medicine is not being distributed to those who need it.

Among many shortsighted and ill-informed actions, this funding freeze was made under the guise of eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse. I am all for finding and eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse – something Inspectors General Richardson and Martin, at State and USAID, respectively, were tasked with doing, before they were illegally purged in the dead of night. 

But millions of lives are not waste. In fact, Musk and President Trump have created even more waste, and made government less efficient. 

While portions of the PEPFAR program were allowed to continue, the key implementing partner agencies, USAID and CDC, are being destroyed – obstructing the path for resources to reach recipients.

Public health abroad affects public health at home. Economic stagnation abroad affects our economy here in the U.S. And when people are needlessly getting sick and dying overseas, it means weaker partners – diplomatically, militarily, economically – for Americans. 

For 20 years, we have invested in this program that saves lives, but that also strengthens our diplomatic relationships. But overnight, this Administration has allowed decades of work to backslide, and undermined our nation’s greatest public health diplomacy effort.

This does not put America first. When we retreat from the world, diplomatically, and through our assistance to vulnerable people, America will be alone. We will be without allies, in a less stable world, without the support of the international community, and you know who will come out ahead? China. Russia. Iran.

This chaos does not make America stronger, safer, or more prosperous. This Administration is putting billionaire profits and our adversaries first. Americans, and sick and vulnerable people around the world, will be much worse off for it. 

This subcommittee, the full Appropriations Committee, and the Congress must commit to reasserting its power of the purse. Article I of the Constitution plainly states that government spending must and can only be a consequence of appropriations in law. We are not writing directives here – we are writing laws. 

I am hopeful that we will come together and fully fund PEPFAR and its implementing partners. 

We cannot let the fate of PEPFAR, or any other critical program funded through Acts of Congress, rest on the whims of Elon Musk and Russ Vought. They must follow the law.

Thank you, and I yield back.

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