Republicans in the US Senate have said they will spare the US-backed HIV/Aids programme Pepfar from cuts, amid a larger effort to reduce government spending.
Senators said they would end a plan to cut $400m (£300m) from the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief programme, leaving total proposed cuts at $9bn.
The proposition was made in a Senate amendment to a rescissions package – meaning a bill that allows lawmakers to cancel previous funding approved by Congress. The planned cancellations also include funds for international aid and public broadcasting.
If the Pepfar amendment is approved, the bill will go back to the House of Representatives for another vote ahead of a Friday deadline.
Multiple senators from both parties had expressed concern with cuts to Pepfar, which was launched under President George W Bush and has been credited with saving tens of millions of lives around the world, especially in Africa.
The Republican-controlled Senate can only afford a few defectors, assuming all Democrats vote in opposition. John Thune, the Republican Senate majority leader, said there had been a “lot of interest” in keeping the Pepfar funding intact.
Senator Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, told reporters after a White House lunch on Tuesday that she was “very pleased” that the cuts would be removed.
Prior to the amendment, Collins had been vocal against the bill. She has not said whether the changes are enough to secure her support.
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought told reporters that the White House was on board with the Senate amendment, meaning that in its current form President Donald Trump would be willing to sign it.
In his second presidency, Trump has turbo-charged an effort to reduce government spending. Most of the cuts in the rescission bill are aimed at clawing back money that was previously earmarked for the American government’s main humanitarian assistance body, USAID, which recently announced its formal closure under Trump.
Trump’s moves have led to drastic reductions in HIV/Aids clinics in South Africa and other countries, precipitating a shortage of life-saving medicine and care.
The about-turn was welcomed by Prof Helen Rees who specialises in HIV, vaccine-preventable diseases and sexual health at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
“This is very good news,” she told the BBC.
“It’s obviously not replacing the totality of what Pepfar was providing but nonetheless it indicates a softening of the views in the US and the importance to the members of the Senate of the Pepfar programme in terms of lives saved.”
She added that the sudden withdrawal of the funding was “a huge threat to the lives of many people, particularly in lower-income countries and particularly in Africa”.
Other cuts in the rescission bill are aimed at the funding for public broadcasters NPR and PBS.
Additional reporting by Ed Habershon in Johannesburg