In his rescissions request to Congress last month, President Donald Trump asked that the hundreds of millions dollars budgeted for the President's Emergency Plans for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, be cancelled.

In an early morning 51-48 vote, the Senate moved to advance President Donald Trump’s request to claw back $9 billion in federal spending that had been previously approved, known as a rescissions package. It was passed following a 13-hour marathon of amendments, in a rare process to avoid a 60-vote threshold.

Hundreds of millions in federal taxpayer dollars have been given to organizations around the world that likely facilitate prostitution and

Presented by AstraZeneca{beacon} Health Care Health Care   The Big Story PEPFAR survives rescissions Senate Republicans are removing a global anti-HIV program from the White

The U.S. Senate has opened debate on a $9 billion rescission bill to claw back foreign aid and other funding not aligned with Trump administration priorities, but will apparently leave one critical public health program alone.

PEPFAR has not operated in Russia since 2012, when President Vladimir Putin kicked the United States Agency for International Development out of the country. U.S. law prohibits the use of any federal funds to pay for abortions. Funding abortions through PEPFAR would imply not just waste, but serious crimes or negligence, or both.