Call to Action: Save PEPFAR, Save Global Health
Background: The State Department is trying to dismantle PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), the bipartisan HIV program that has saved more than 26 million lives worldwide. They are doing this by stripping out the vital role of CDC in implementing lifesaving PEPFAR programs, which would:
- eliminate CDC-supported HIV treatment programs reaching more than 8 million people
- close more than 100 CDC-supported PEPFAR programs
- cut CDC’s global disease surveillance workforce from 1,500 to 500 people across dozens of countries
- cut $2 billion in PEPFAR funding for CDC’s global HIV and disease response capabilities by 93%, to just $150 million
-> Learn more: fact sheet on the attack on CDC’s global AIDS program, and article from 8 former CDC Directors: Stop the State Department from dismantling PEPFAR
PEPFAR without CDC as an implementing agency means decades of HIV, disease surveillance, laboratory support, and outbreak response capacity would end. Following on the decimation of USAID in 2025 and the outright cancellation of hundreds of PEPFAR awards, eliminating CDC’s PEPFAR implementing role would create vast new harms to the global HIV response.
This proposal would take effect as soon as October 1, 2026. But we can stop it.
What you can do: Grassroots action is needed now to reverse this move by the State Department. Congress can protect CDC’s lifesaving role, but they need pressure from us. Take action today:
-> Action for week of June 15: ask your Senators to sign onto Sen. Warnock’s Dear Colleague letter in support of CDC’s PEPFAR program. Deadline to sign: Monday June 22, 12 noon ET.
-> Sample calling script: your Senators’ contact information is here, call their offices and ask them to sign on to Senator Warnock’s Dear Colleague Letter urging efforts to safeguard PEPFAR. Here’s what you could say:
PEPFAR has saved more than 26 million lives and remains one of the most successful global health programs in U.S. history. Proposed changes to the program would significantly reduce the CDC’s role in HIV treatment, disease surveillance, and outbreak response, putting more than 8 million HIV patients’ lives at risk and making our country less safe. Ask the office to contact Cate Howell (Cate_Howell@warnock.senate.
MORE RESOURCES
Coverage of CDC PEPFAR threats:
- Science by Jon Cohen: Trump administration cuts CDC’s key role in global program to stop HIV
- STAT column by 8 former CDC Directors: Stop the State Department from dismantling PEPFAR
- Think Global Health by Matthew Brown: Ebola Recalls Why the U.S. Needs a Foreign Health Service
- The New York Times by Apoorva Mandavilli: New Plan Scales Back CDC’s Work on Disease Abroad
Resources for policymakers:
- 4-page fact sheet
- Draft letter from Senator Warnock to Congressional Committee leaders urging them to protect PEPFAR (currently accepting signatures from other Senators until June 18)
- Analysis by the Global Health Security Academy: PEPFAR is Hanging on by its Fingernails
Action tools:
- Email tool: Send an email to your members of Congress with this tool set up by Defend Public Health, CDC Alumni & Friends Network, and Health GAP