Religious Groups Push Vought to Free Money to Fight Diseases

Faith leaders from varied organizations are pressing the White House to stop sitting on billions already appropriated to fight HIV and other diseases overseas. In a letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, the Hill reports, five religious groups urged the administration to fully release funds Congress approved for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the vaccine alliance Gavi. "These funds are urgently needed now," they wrote, warning that withholding the money will cost lives, particularly among children and new mothers.

Signatories include Bread for the World, the Jesuit Conference Office of Justice and Ecology, Mormon Women for Ethical Government, the National Association of Evangelicals, and the National Latino Evangelical Coalition. The Trump administration has released only a portion of the $6 billion authorized for PEPFAR and has not specified future funding in its latest budget request, part of a broader effort to scale back US contributions. Democrats previously pressed Secretary of State Marco Rubio over a separate $661 million Global Fund tranche he described as delayed by bookkeeping and likely to move "very quickly."