Protesters demand release of HIV funds 'illegally' withheld by Trump

Source: The Guardian

Wed 3 Sep 2025 08.19 EDT
Last modified on Wed 3 Sep 2025 08.45 EDT


As Congress reconvened on Tuesday, activists gathered near the White House to protest against cuts to global HIV funding, calling attention to funds they say are being withheld illegally by the Trump administration despite being appropriated by Congress.

The end of the fiscal year 2025 is 30 September, which means the majority of the withheld federal funds will disappear. The activists called for the release of the funding for programs such as Pepfar (the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief), a program established in 2003 that has saved an estimated 26 million lives around the world and promised to help bring the HIV epidemic to an end.

An estimated 450,000 people have died because of the abrupt cuts to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Millions have paused or ended taking the medications that either keep them from getting HIV or keep the virus from progressing and becoming infectious again.

“The funding is there. The global health programs that have been shuttered, Congress has funded them … but OMB is not permitting it to be spent. They are impounding those funds,” said Atul Gawande, the former assistant administrator for global health at USAID, who spoke at the protest. “That is not legal.”

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/03/hiv-aids-funds-protest-washington-dc