A group of demonstrators disrupted a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on USAID funding on Thursday, mistakenly believing that President Trump's administration had cut aid for the PEPFAR program. Their chants calling for the restoration of AIDS funding were met with surprise from Committee Chairman Brian Mast (R-Fla.), who pointed out that PEPFAR funding had already been reinstated.
Mast playfully suggested the protesters catch up on current events, perhaps by tuning into Fox News. The incident highlighted a disconnect between the protesters' information and the reality of the situation.
The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), established during the Bush administration, has been credited with saving millions of lives globally. It received a waiver from the Trump administration, exempting it from the broader funding freeze impacting USAID and State Department programs.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio broadened the exemption to include essential aid such as medicine, food, and shelter. However, Republicans have criticized what they see as wasteful spending within USAID and the State Department. A memo circulated by Congressional Republicans highlighted examples of funding they deemed questionable, including seminars on gender identity and racial equality, support for Indonesian coffee companies, cash vouchers for migrants at the southern border, promoting atheism in Nepal, and funding an LGBTQ-themed comic book in Peru.
