OMB Director Vought preserves PEPFAR after evangelical backlash

The Senate passed a $9 billion rescissions package on July 17, 2025, cutting $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and $7.9 billion from foreign aid programs. The 51-48 vote came after a 13-hour amendment marathon, with Vice President JD Vance casting tie-breaking votes on procedural hurdles.

OMB Director Russell Vought announced the administration would exempt PEPFAR from the rescissions package on July 15, 2025, after Republican senators threatened to vote against the bill. PEPFAR is credited with saving 25 million lives since its 2003 launch under President George W. Bush.

The evangelical Christian community's political organizing proved decisive in saving PEPFAR. Faith leaders who treat global AIDS relief as a humanitarian mission made clear to Republican senators that cutting the program would cost them politically. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a key vote, publicly cited the evangelical community's concerns in defending the exemption.

Republican Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) voted no on the final package despite the PEPFAR exemption. Collins, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, stated that OMB had never provided the implementation details that are normally part of this process — making it impossible to know which specific global health programs would lose funding.

Murkowski was direct about the constitutional principle at stake. "Our responsibility is to legislate, not to shrug our shoulders and take direction from the White House," she told reporters. The statement articulated the core concern: Congress appropriates funds, and asking Congress to rescind money without identifying which programs to cut transfers spending decisions to the executive without adequate legislative oversight.

The 51-48 margin meant a single senator's switch would have killed the bill. Both Collins and Murkowski voted no, but no other Republican defected.

This marked the first successful rescission in over 25 years. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 allows a president to propose rescinding congressionally appropriated funds, but Congress must pass a rescission bill within 45 days or the funds must be released. Republicans used this mechanism to pass the cuts with a simple majority, bypassing the Senate's normal 60-vote filibuster threshold.

The Government Accountability Office has stated that so-called "pocket rescissions" — timing requests close to funds' expiration dates to let money lapse without a congressional vote — are illegal under the Impoundment Control Act. The 2025 package went through regular rescission procedures, but the GAO's position set boundaries on how aggressively the administration could use impoundment tools.

Programs that survived the rescissions package had concentrated, politically organized domestic constituencies. PEPFAR had evangelical leaders, former Republican presidents, and public health researchers. Programs that lost funding — including refugee assistance, disaster relief, and peacekeeping contributions — had diffuse beneficiaries with little organized U.S. political representation, illustrating how political mobilization determines which budget cuts stick.

PEPFAR was created in 2003 under President George W. Bush with broad bipartisan support and has been reauthorized by both Republican and Democratic Congresses. The program currently treats more than 20 million people with HIV/AIDS across sub-Saharan Africa and other regions. Cutting it would not just reduce U.S. spending — it would immediately affect people receiving antiretroviral treatment whose supply chains depend on U.S. funding.