Trump administration plans to divert $2 billion in global health funding to pay for USAID shutdown
The Trump administration plans to redirect $2 billion in funding intended for global health programs to cover the cost of closing the US Agency for International Development (USAID), according to reports.
The funds would be pulled from money that Congress appropriated for health programs tackling malaria, tuberculosis, maternal and child health, nutrition, global health security, HIV/AIDS and more, two federal health policy experts told CNN. Roughly $1.2 billion originally intended for foreign development assistance would also be redirected.
Instead, the administration aims to use those billions to pay for things like legal costs, pending invoices and asset sales in the wake of its abrupt dismantling of USAID.
Last year, the Trump administration temporarily froze nearly all foreign aid and canceled thousands of aid work contracts, as it dismantled USAID and folded the few remaining programs under the State Department.
In total, the US government told Congress that it has reserved more than $19.1 billion to pay for USAID closeout costs, most of which is money coming from previously terminated USAID contracts, according to the notification obtained by CNN that was sent on April 20. The notification to Congress was first reported by Devex.
A group of 17 Senate Democrats is demanding that the administration reverse the budget notification “and put the funds to their intended use to save lives and advance U.S. interests as directed by Congress last year.”
“The Administration should immediately begin using these foreign assistance funds to deliver results for the American people. There is no reason for this FY25 funding to be withheld to cover the wasteful costs this Administration has incurred because it chose to dismantle USAID,” the senators argued in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Russell Vought and acting USAID administrator Eric Ueland.