As the Senate moves to vote on its rescissions legislation this week, Bill Gates warned on Monday of the potential harm to the United States Agency for International Development.
The GOP-controlled Senate plans to strike $9.4 billion from the previously approved federal budget, including $1 billion in aid for global health programs. Gates is deeply worried about the implications of cutting such funding.
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“I’m alarmed at how a bid to eliminate inefficiencies in the U.S. budget—an important task—has put us on the verge of cutting funds for almost every single effective lifesaving aid program and, with it, our country’s proud history of helping others less fortunate than ourselves,” he wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published Monday.
As the head of his own charitable foundation, Gates has dedicated much of his money to medicines and vaccinations worldwide. Just last month, the Gates Foundation announced it was pledging $1.6 billion over five years to a nonprofit organization called Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
Since its inception in 2000, the foundation has spent over $100 billion, roughly half of which has gone toward global health. In total, it has spent $30.6 billion on worldwide vaccination efforts.
The 69-year-old philanthropist believes global health programs would be adversely affected by Senate Republicans’ rescissions bill, doubting the need for cutting government waste.
“The government knows exactly what it’s buying and why,” he wrote. “Some critiques make it seem like the U.S. government cuts blank checks and then stops paying attention. That simply isn’t true. I know this because I read the audit reports produced by many global health programs that the American foreign aid budget funds.”
Gates listed the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the President’s Malaria Initiative as two key programs that would face drastic cuts under an approved rescissions package.
PEPFAR and PMI have saved about 37 million people since 2003, he said. Additionally, Gavi’s vaccination efforts have helped 19 million children since 2000.
“These programs aren’t only effective; they’re also efficient,” Gates argued, explaining how the “health programs are designed to stretch” their funding. Health aid accounts for less than 0.1% of the total federal budget.
Global health also benefits American interests and strengthens national security, the billionaire said.
“It promotes peace and stability in potentially dangerous regions, protects us from pandemic disease, and generates economic growth that benefits the whole world, including us,” he added.
Beyond cutting foreign aid, the rescissions bill, which narrowly passed the House last month, also scales back funding from the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio.
It remains to be seen if the Senate can pass the package, with some Republicans voicing skepticism. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) particularly questions the $400 million cuts to PEPFAR. The bill can pass with a simple majority of votes.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told CBS News on Sunday he suspects it will be a “very close” vote.
Congress has until Friday to send the bill to President Donald Trump’s desk.
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“After World War II, America helped Europe rebuild. It was a demonstration of both moral and strategic leadership. We did it because it was good for others and because we knew it would be good for us, too. That is precisely the kind of leadership we’ve been exercising in Africa and Asia for the past generation,” Gates wrote in his plea to the Senate.
“All Americans should be proud of the people they have helped by funding global health programs, and senators should vote to keep these programs, not cut them,” he added.