March 24, 2025
225 faith leaders urge Congress for robust FY26 allocation for the Global Fund
Today, Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and 225 members of the Faith-Based Coalition for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria sent a letter to the leaders of House and Senate Appropriations Committee on investment in the Global Fund in Fiscal Year 2026.
The letter urges a robust allocation in fiscal year 2026 to support a partnership that has saved so many lives—65 million since 2002—prioritizing the most vulnerable communities, uplifting the work of faith-based caregivers and preventing millions of devastating deaths from AIDS, TB and malaria.
Click here to read the full letter
Dear Chairman Cole, Ranking Member DeLauro, Chairman Diaz-Balart, Ranking Member Frankel, Senator Collins, Senator Murray, Senator Graham and Senator Schatz:
As leaders of faith communities across the nation, we are called to care for the most vulnerable, seeing every person in inherently equal dignity. We believe that the United States should continue to prioritize that duty at a time of great need. For more than twenty years, Americans of faith have been proud to support U.S. leadership in the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the multistakeholder financing mechanism that has saved more than 65 million lives with its partners around the world.
The Global Fund makes Americans safer by containing devastating pandemics abroad and building commitment of other nations to contribute to arresting these potential threats. Americans are more secure when desperate problems in other countries are dealt with locally without these problems spreading uncertainty here at home. And the success of the Global Fund makes Americans more prosperous by freeing women and men in low- and lower-middle income countries from illnesses so that they thrive with their God-given gifts as workers, consumers, and economic partners. These benefits of removing human harm and insecurity – a moral mission, are reaped while large economic growth occurs when countries are freed from the threat of AIDS, TB and Malaria.
With our thanks for your clarity of vision and commitment in the past, we urge you to continue this tradition of righteous—and practical—leadership by appropriating a bold contribution to the Global Fund. This year, the Global Fund begins its replenishment process, seeking $18 billion from all donors over three years. To fully meet the first year of that request, the U.S. should contribute $2 billion in fiscal year 2026. Because U.S. law limits contributions to one-third of the Global Fund’s total resources, that could unlock an addition $4 billion from other donors who know a U.S. contribution is only unlocked if matched 2 to 1.
The lifesaving impact of the Global Fund’s work is immense. Fully funded, the Global Fund will save an estimated 23 million lives in the three years the replenishment covers. In 2023, the Global Fund delivered antiretroviral treatment to 25 million people living with HIV, provided TB treatment to 7.1 million people and distributed 227 million mosquito nets to prevent malaria infections. These programs are designed and implemented with local communities and civil society, and often with faith-based organizations, which receive approximately half a billion dollars in grant funding from the Global Fund each year.
The Global Fund is especially important for protecting mothers and their babies from deadly diseases. It provided preventative antimalarial treatment to 45 million children and 16 million pregnant women in 2023, protecting the two groups most vulnerable to the disease. That same year, almost 700,000 pregnant women living with HIV received medicine from the Global Fund to keep them alive and prevent their babies from acquiring the disease—treating 84% of all pregnant women living with HIV.
American leadership and investment in the Global Fund saves lives, protects families and inspires other countries to invest even more. It’s also an important part of America’s broader foreign assistance efforts. With just a tiny portion of the overall budget, these programs keep our country safe, secure and prosperous while offering care and relief to those who need it most. We hope you will continue to support the Global Fund and its focused mission to defeat HIV, TB and malaria as epidemics. It is an achievable mission worthy of all believers and represents a truly strong America.
Senator Bill Frist, MD
Chairman, Advisory Board, 2030 Collaborative