For the first time in 20 years, Congress did not reauthorize the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a global initiative started under former President George W. Bush to help combat the global HIV epidemic. PEPFAR reauthorization, which is typically reapproved every five years, was left out of appropriations legislation that passed this past September, and its absence meant that parts of the PEPFAR program expired on Sept. 30. Democrats, including the Biden administration, were largely opposed to the lack of reapproved funding. “The fact that Congress did not reauthorize the program sends a message to partners around the…

The House of Representatives passed legislation in September to try and stop states from banning or limiting the sale of gas-powered cars. The Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act (H.R. 1435) passed by a 222-190 vote, with Republicans largely in favor, and is a reaction to California’s 2022 mandate that all new cars sold in the state after 2035 must be zero-emission vehicles, though the bill did not mention California or its mandate specifically. The state’s air resources board acknowledged that the move is “aggressive” and described its timeline to eliminate new gas-powered car sales by 2035 as “ambitious but…