PRESS RELEASE: For Immediate Release: April 15, 2026
Contact: Asia Russell, Health GAP: (267) 475 2645 | asia@healthgap.org
AIDS Activists and Former USAID Employees Arrested Disrupting OMB Secretary Vought’s Appearance at House Budget Committee Hearing
Protesters Demand an end to Vought’s Illegal Obstruction of Funding for Global AIDS and Health Programs
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) Activists and former USAID and PEPFAR staff were arrested today protesting ongoing attacks on HIV and global health programs by Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought during his appearance before the House Budget Committee (Cannon House Office Building, Room 210, 10:15 AM).
Protesters disrupted Vought’s testimony, demanding accountability for his attempts to dismantle life-saving global health programs, including PEPFAR, and his blatant defiance of the will of Congress, which has fully funded PEPFAR programs for FY25 and FY26 over Vought’s objections, including by rejecting $400 million in rescission of PEPFAR funding in 2025. The FY27 President’s budget request for HIV and global health would eliminate HIV-specific and all disease-specific programming, while slashing overall global health funding by 46% compared with FY26 levels ($9.4 billion in FY26; $5.4 billion proposed in FY27 the President’s budget request). In addition to proposing deadly funding cuts, the FY27 budget request also disparages scientific evidence in global health, particularly regarding highly effective methods of HIV prevention, suggesting elimination of funding for condoms and programs for LGBTQ+ people, who face disproportionately high HIV risk of HIV infection due to criminalization and stigma.
”Russell Vought is directly responsible for illegally withholding Congressionally appropriated funds for PEPFAR and related global health initiatives. These funding disruptions have already contributed to preventable deaths and threaten to reverse decades of progress in the fight against HIV worldwide,” said Charles King, CEO of Housing Works. “Enough is enough. Congress must ensure Vought stops this deadly sabotage.” Vought also recently diverted $15 million appropriated for lifesaving humanitarian assistance to pay for his personal security, He is also poised to use $2 billion already appropriated in FY25 only for malaria, maternal and child health, and tuberculosis and instead spend it on “closeout costs” for USAID grants he decimated.
Vought and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are also overseeing demands for exploitative conditionalities as part of bilateral HIV and health deals. For example, the Administration is threatening to withhold HIV assistance “on a massive scale” if Zambia does not grant America access to its mineral wealth. “Threatening to cut off life saving treatment if Zambia does not agree to America’s plunder of their minerals is unacceptable,” said Kendall Martinez-Wright of the Treatment Action Group. “We will not allow Vought to use people with HIV as bargaining chips.” Activists are demanding Trump, Vought, Rubio, and Congress:
• Fully obligate appropriated PEPFAR funds and rejection of growing political interference in global and domestic HIV programs
• Immediately release already-appropriated, unobligated PEPFAR funds
• Break the blackout on PEPFAR data, so Congress and people with HIV know how funding is being spent and can program based on data
• Reject the FY27 budget request for HIV and global health programs
• Activists are calling for full obligation of appropriated PEPFAR funds and rejection of growing political interference in global and domestic HIV programs.