Yesterday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that the Trump
Administration has finished gutting the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID), wiping out 83% of its programs.

Life-saving health and humanitarian efforts have been scrapped — leaving
millions of people without the care they depend on.

Slashing USAID’s global health funding is an outright betrayal of America’s role
in saving lives around the world.

According to The New York Times, programs recently defunded include: * A grant to help UNICEF deliver polio vaccines to millions of children

* A contract for malaria tests, treatments, and preventative measures that
would have protected 53 million people

* A project in the Democratic Republic of Congo that is the only source of
water for 250,000 people

* HIV treatment projects that provided medication to 350,000 people in Lesotho,
Tanzania, and Eswatini

* Eighty-seven women’s shelters in South Africa that took care of 33,000
survivors of rape and domestic violence

* A project that provided food for malnourished pregnant women in Bangladesh

This is not just a budget cut. It’s a deliberate dismantling of U.S. global
health leadership. It is also illegal and a violation of Congressionally
mandated aid commitments.

If you’re wondering how this relates to the lawsuit over the foreign aid freeze
we’ve been telling you about, here’s the situation: * Last night, the judge in the case agreed that the aid freeze was illegal and
unconstitutional

* This was a major win to protect our democracy and prevent Trump and Musk from
simply refusing to spend money Congress has appropriated

* However, the judge did not stop Trump from canceling contracts after they
have been subjected to a supposedly individualized review — which is what
Rubio claims to have done

* So, despite the fact that the judge has ruled for us, the vast majority of
U.S. humanitarian programs are, for now, stripped of funding

This is beyond shameful.

When Trump and DOGE (Elon Musk’s so-called “Department of Government
Efficiency”) target USAID, they’re barely making a dent in the federal budget —
but they’re doing tremendous damage to the health of people around the world.

Call your members of Congress. Tell them: Demand that the Trump Administration
reverse these devastating cuts and restore Congressionally approved global
health funding. Speak out in support of USAID and America’s important
humanitarian work. [[link removed]]

Thanks for taking action.

For progress,

- Robert Weissman & Lisa Gilbert, Co-Presidents of Public Citizen


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