{"id":11579294,"date":"2025-07-27T09:25:34","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T13:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/?p=11579294"},"modified":"2025-07-27T09:25:30","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T13:25:30","slug":"kudos-to-gop-for-defying-trump-on-aids-funding-reader-commentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/2025\/07\/27\/kudos-to-gop-for-defying-trump-on-aids-funding-reader-commentary\/","title":{"rendered":"Kudos to GOP for defying Trump on AIDS funding | READER COMMENTARY"},"content":{"rendered":"

Congressional Republican independence has occurred so seldom during the reign of President Donald Trump that we should commend the action recently taken by GOP senators to reject Trump’s proposal to claw back $400 million from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief or PEPFAR (“Senate passes $9 billion in spending cuts to public broadcasting, foreign aid requested by Trump,”<\/a> July 17). This is the George W. Bush era program that has provided HIV treatment and preventive services for the past 22 years, saving more than 26 million lives in low-income countries.<\/p>\n

Congress should reject any subsequent action taken by the U.S. Department of State to sharply reduce U.S. assistance to the AIDS program in clear defiance of Congressional intent.<\/p>\n

\u2014 John R. Leopold, Stoney Beach<\/p>\n

Add your voice: Respond to this piece or other Sun content by\u00a0<\/i>submitting your own letter<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two decades long U.S. effort to reduce HIV infection in developing countries did not deserve to be abandoned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":11579335,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-07-27T13:25:34Z","apple_news_api_id":"35581a6e-2282-4874-8209-e3d91e52c954","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-07-27T13:25:34Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/ANVgabiKCSHSCCePZHlLJVA","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"middle","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"subheadline":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[96],"tags":[193],"feature":[],"location":[],"type-of-work":[],"coauthors":[24449],"class_list":["post-11579294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-readers-respond"],"post_status":"","edit_last":0,"edit_lock":0,"highlights":"","original_byline":"","original_canonical":"","original_category":"","original_email":"","original_id":0,"original_pubdate":"","original_source":"","primary_section":"96","primary_tag":193,"print_workflow_body":{"deck_headline":"","print_title":"","print_subheadline":"","print_priority":"","print_placement":"cover","print_planned_ready":"","print_pub_date":"","print_slug":"TBS-L-AIDSMONEY-0725","print_content":"","print_budget_line":"","print_excerpt":"","print_notes":"","photo_limits":"Photo limits are: 1 featured image, 5 featured gallery images, 5 embedded gallery images and 5 in-article embedded images. 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