Dear Friends,

Billions for weapons and war, or billions for AIDS drugs? That’s what’s on the table in the coming 3 or 4 days. It’s being reported that the Congress has agreed to an appropriations bill for the Defense Department—and it’s $6 billion above what the Senate was planning on!

Does that mean that Washington has forgotten the plan to cut billions from the Federal Budget? Nope: it just means they plan to take it out of critical health and development programs instead. Right now the State & Foreign Operations bill—where most of the global AIDS money for PEPFAR and the Global Fund comes from-is looking at major cuts.

Meanwhile, the Health & Human Services (HHS) bill—where $300 million in funding for the Global Fund should be—has been classified as not being “security” and therefore (in a crazy twist of logic) they’re stripping out all the international security spending including the Global Fund!

Can you call your member of Congress right now?

Tell them we won’t stand for billions in life-saving health programs being cut so defense contractors can make a killing off more bombs and fighter jets.

Find your representative here.

Then call: (202)224-3121 for the capitol switch board

Tell them you want: *No cuts to the Global Fund from HHS or State funding bills!

*No cuts to PEPFAR!

And remind them that we won’t stand for funding defense contractors on the backs of people living with HIV.

Thank you!