Ten HIV/AIDS activists were arrested yesterday on Capitol Hill after interrupting a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing involving Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The demonstrators, representing Housing Works, Health GAP, the Treatment Action Group, and ACT UP, protested what they described as efforts to weaken the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR.
Protesters held signs and chanted, “Rubio’s Cuts Kill People with AIDS, PEPFAR Saves Lives!” before U.S. Capitol Police removed them from the hearing room inside the Dirksen Senate Office Building. According to organizers, the protest focused on concerns over proposed cuts to global HIV and public health programs. Activists accused Rubio of attempting to dismantle the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s role in PEPFAR, which currently supports roughly 12 million people receiving HIV treatment across 51 countries.
The groups also criticized the withholding of billions in congressionally approved global health funding and alleged that the administration is negotiating access to African mineral resources in exchange for HIV prevention and treatment assistance. The protest comes amid ongoing backlash over the Trump-Vance administration’s HIV/AIDS policies. While Rubio issued a waiver in January 2025 allowing PEPFAR and other lifesaving humanitarian programs to continue operating during a broader freeze on foreign aid spending, HIV service providers say funding losses tied to the closure of the U.S. Agency for International Development have severely disrupted care worldwide.
