Mark Alford Presses OMB Director Russell Vought About Cuts To Global Health Program: Will You Cut PEPFAR?

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During a House Appropriations Committee hearing earlier this month, Rep. Mark Alford (R-MO) questioned OMB Director Russell Vought about cuts to the Global Health Program.

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00:00The Chair now recognizes Mr. Alford for his five-minute questions.

00:03Well, thank you, Chair Joyce and Ranking Member Hoyer, and Ms. DeLauro, thank you for being here today.

00:09Director Vogt, thank you, most of all.

00:11I appreciate the work you're doing to try to right the ship in America,

00:15and we're about to hit a reef if we don't do something with our spending.

00:21I do want to follow up on my colleague, Mr. Womack,'s questioning about the full budget.

00:27So you were saying we are not going to receive the full budget until after the reconciliation package is done,

00:34which at the earliest would be July 4th.

00:36Is that correct?

00:37Correct.

00:38We will be forthcoming with additional information to fill out the deficit picture

00:44and all of the additional information at that time.

00:48I'm new to this.

00:50I'm new on appropriations.

00:51I'm just kind of learning this process, but this really puts us up against the wall.

00:55I mean, we're having our MilCon VA markup tomorrow without a full budget.

01:02We've got to get all 12 of these out of committee, and we've got to get these passed on the House floor.

01:09We've got to get a lot done before our August in-district work period.

01:13We don't need another CR, and we don't need a government shutdown.

01:16That will not be good for the president.

01:17It will not be good for Congress.

01:18It will not be good for America.

01:19Let me clarify, Carney.

01:21You have everything you need for all of your markups.

01:25You do not just have high-level discretionary proposals that we were forthcoming with nearly a month ago.

01:31You have the full budget as it pertains to the appropriations process,

01:35and you have all of the information that is needed to be able to write those bills,

01:40particularly in the VA context where you're dealing with advanced appropriations.

01:43You have that material, congressional budget justifications, and the appendix went up last week

01:49and are continuing to flow.

01:51Where there is only some work that remains is on the defense side,

01:55and we are pushing DOD as fast as we can to get their remaining information up to the Hill.

02:00Thank you for your support of the one big, beautiful bill.

02:04Of course, we do appreciate that.

02:07You have said that, talking to critics, they have been relying on faulty CBO numbers for their criticism of the bill.

02:16Example, in 2017, the CBO was off with its projections of the TCGA by $1 trillion.

02:21What are the flaws in CBO scoring?

02:25Well, other than the baselines that they use, which do not reflect or are not comparable with how they treat spending.

02:30So CBO assumes that spending will continue.

02:34All of your appropriations bills are assumed, not on an annual basis, which, of course, they are passed on,

02:40but they are assumed to continue with inflation over the life of the 10-year window.

02:45That's not the case with tax revenue.

02:47For the way that the law was written and the way that CBO operates is that they judge an expiration date

02:54to be something that causes it to look like a new cost to taxpayers.

02:59That's one, and then, of course, they've had just historically undynamic assumptions with regard to tax policy

03:07and other policy moves therein.

03:11I want to talk a little bit about the rescission package that you sent over, $9.4 billion package.

03:18Secretary Rubio was sitting in that seat two weeks ago before NSRP subcommittee.

03:22There have been 5,341 USAID awards that have been terminated, unobligated savings of $27.7 billion,

03:31yet your rescission package only includes $9.3 billion, I believe, for state and foreign aid.

03:36Is that correct?

03:37It's correct, yeah.

03:38Are we going to see further rescission packages that will claw back this money?

03:42Perhaps.

03:43We are very anxious to see the reception from a vote standpoint in the House and the Senate.

03:49We've had tremendous interactions with your committee, sitting down with the chairman,

03:54the subcommittee chairman, to make sure that the package, one of the reasons why it took a little bit,

04:00it was constructed a long time ago, was we were having the conversations with this committee

04:04to make it so that it can be passed next week.

04:08If that goes well, I'm less concerned about the House as I am the Senate,

04:12and it's very important for it to pass.

04:14If it does, it'll be worth the effort, and we'll send up additional packages.

04:17Last question, part of the rescission package, the global health program for $400 million,

04:22it says this proposal would eliminate only those programs that neither provide life-saving treatment

04:26nor support American interests.

04:28Does this include PEPFAR, any money that's funding PEPFAR whatsoever?

04:32It does.

04:32It has a cut to PEPFAR, but not to life-saving treatment.

04:36Let me just walk you through some of this.

04:37What about prevention, sir?

04:38So the challenge we have in PEPFAR is that PEPFAR has been perceived as only life-saving treatment,

04:45but if you look, you've got $2.5 million for teaching young children how to make environmentally friendly

04:50reproductive health decisions.

04:51You have nearly $1 million for services for transgender people, sex workers,

04:56and their client and sexual networks in Nepal.

04:58You have $5.1 million to strengthen the resilience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex,

05:06and queer global movements.

05:07So even in an area like PEPFAR, and I did see some of the reaction from the Senate as to us including PEPFAR,

05:15we believe that it needs to be on the table.

05:18We can find waste, fraud, and abuse there that the American people would not support,

05:23and it's one of the reasons why it's in the package, but it will not lead to life-saving treatment being denied.

05:29That has been a hallmark of all President Trump's budgetary policies with regard to PEPFAR

05:33is if you are receiving care, you will continue to receive that care.

05:37I'm out of time.

05:38I yield back.

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