In a legal blow to the Trump administration, the Supreme Court on March 5 blocked a $2 billion freeze on foreign aid, ruling 5-4 against the spending cuts. Aid organizations, including the Global Health Council, had urged the Supreme Court to enforce the restart of foreign aid, citing the administration’s disregard for prior court orders. This appeal highlighted significant layoffs and disruptions to life-saving services. The March 5 ruling compelled the administration to compensate contractors for completed foreign aid work and requires further clarification of payment obligations from the trial judge.

On March 10, a US federal judge followed up on the Supreme Court’s decision by ruling that the administration’s foreign aid freeze usurped Congress’s constitutional authority, and he ordered the administration to pay the humanitarian assistance quickly. His ruling is expected to be appealed.

The decisions follow a tumultuous period for USAID, which has had thousands of aid projects canceled. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that 83% of the agency’s contracts had been canceled. The remaining 1,000 will be administered from the State Department. The decision jeopardizes significant health initiatives, including the development of an HIV-preventative injectable drug, malaria and HIV vaccine trials, and other studies aimed at enhancing health services delivery in remote areas.

In a separate decision, a US district judge in early March issued a nationwide injunction against the Trump administration’s National Institutes of Health funding cuts for federal research grants. The proposed reductions, aimed at saving $4 billion annually, threatened layoffs, research disruptions and laboratory closures nationwide. The court found the cuts unlawful, raising concerns over their impact on ongoing medical research, clinical trials, innovation,  patient care, and public health. The administration is circumnavigating that ruling by instead making more surgical cuts to funding, from LGBTQ+ and DEI research to vaccine hesitancy research. 

In other recent news…

• As the largest donor to global health, the U.S. has historically played a pivotal role, making the sector highly susceptible to policy changes and funding cuts. A report from the Center for Global Development underscores the vulnerability of certain nations that heavily rely on U.S. health assistance, especially for diseases like HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria. The ongoing cuts pose a major risk, with uncertain recovery as other donors or affected countries might struggle to compensate due to global economic challenges. Read more on KFF.
• The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), founded in 2019 with a seven-year mandate set to expire in October. Congressional hearings this week indicate bi-partisan support to reauthorize and potentially expand DFC’s lending limit to enhance DFC’s ability to support U.S. national security interests and economic influence globally. (Devex)
• One of the best recaps of the impact of the dismantling of US foreign aid was a memo written by Nicholas Enrich, acting assistant administrator for global health at U.S.A.I.D. (now placed on administrative leave. The memo highlighted that stopping these funds could lead to significant increases in preventable diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS, with potentially millions of new cases and deaths. The memo also warns that such health crises could destabilize regions, heighten security risks, and burden the U.S. economically and healthcare-wise. (NYTimes)
• The Trump administration’s recent firings of CDC employees have disrupted public health training programs essential for supporting state and local health departments across the U.S. These dismissals have impaired the country’s ability to manage and respond to infectious diseases like dengue, measles and the flu. Although a federal judge has ruled some of these firings likely illegal, leading to a partial reversal, the situation highlights ongoing challenges within the U.S. public health system, already strained before and further tested during the COVID-19 pandemic. (KFF)
• In a recent KFF Health Tracking Poll, conducted between February 18 and 25, 2025, a significant majority of Americans express concerns that this will exacerbate health crises in low-income countries and lead to more humanitarian disasters. They also recognized global health investment’s role in protecting U.S. public health by preventing the spread of diseases. The public’s views on USAID’s downsizing starkly divide along partisan lines. Moreover, the poll highlights a substantial gap between public perception and reality regarding U.S. foreign aid expenditure. (KFF)
• In February, the Alliance conducted an anonymous survey to gain insights from its multi-sector members about the impact of the USG policy shifts. With 15% of members responding, the survey revealed significant dependency on US government (USG) funding. 
  • In addition to struggles to maintain operations amidst funding shortages and the immediate need to seek alternative funding, members also noted the near and long-term risks to healthcare infrastructure, potentially causing irreparable damage and setting back progress in health equity, partner trust, and global security. Members are focused on maintaining cash reserves, retaining essential staff at scaled-down levels, and continuing projects not dependent on USAID. Respondents also noted the crucial need to understand the evolving landscape of US foreign aid, maintain commitments despite financial strains, and plan for recovery. 
  • To support our members, the Alliance has been playing an active role curating news related to U.S. policy changes and directing members to advocacy efforts and resources. Earlier recaps are here (2/4) and here (1/23 & 28). Future roles suggested for the Alliance include: surfacing new operational models and business strategies that circumvent traditional dependencies on USG funding, fostering new collaborations for advocacy and fund mobilization, and holding convenings to plan for recovery. If you would like to add your voice to the survey, please respond here. 

Resources

Advocacy and Mobilization

• Alliance members CUGH (here and here), DNDi, GAIA (here and here), Global Health Corps (here and here), Global Health Council (here and here), Global Health Technologies Coalition (here and here), IDEO.org, Maya Health Alliance, MedShare, Nexleaf Analytics, North Carolina Global Health Alliance (here and here), PATH, Pathfinder, Population Services International (here and here), ReSurge International, Seed Global Health (here and here), San Francisco Community Health Center (here and here), Stanford (here and here), UC Berkeley, UCGHI, and UCSF (here and here) have spoken with the press or issued statements. 
• Join Week of Action for U.S. International Assistance March 10-14. Advocacy resources and toolkit here.
• More than 65 organizations, including our members Americares, FHI 360, Global Health Council, JSI, PATH, ReSurge International, and UNICEF USA, also signed on to InterAction’s statement in response to the termination of thousands of life-saving awards.
• Partners the CORE Group, UN Foundation, and Unlock Aid are also organizing advocacy efforts. Unlock Aid has adopted a new framework for the US approach to aid, The New American Foreign Partnership Standard, which it has shared with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
• CUGH has outlined ways to take action: share concerns and offer solutions with your congressional representatives; communicate economic and human impact of policies both in the U.S. and globally; and use social media platforms to raise awareness. 
• Find and Contact Your Representatives: U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. Here is a list of key decision makers in Congress, their contact information, as well as sample language to consider.

Navigating the Legal Questions and Resources for Organizations and Individuals

• Humentum offers resources for navigating the foreign assistance pause.
• Connective Impact has launched an open-source resource document in response to the U.S. foreign aid policy shifts.
• Devex has summarized 5 rapid response funds for organizations affected by the US aid freeze.
• Africa Health Ventures highlights 7 funds and organizations helping to address the USG funding gap, as well as other funding opportunities for start-ups in its latest newsletter.
• Unlock Aid has an emergency fund for frontline organizations: Foreign Aid Bridge Fund.
• Just Security has a Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions.
• Tech Change is sharing a job board and resource curation for those impacted.
• Other job opportunities sites include: Philanthropy News Digest,  Idealist.org, WorkforGOOD, FastForward, Reconsidered, The Impact Job, ExecSearches.com, and Foundationlist.org.

 

Sources and What We Are Reading

March 13, 2025

• STAT I White House Pulls Nomination of Dave Weldon as CDC Director Hours Before Hearing
• Devex I FHI 360: Cuts to USAID-Funded Research Another Blow to Global HIV Response

March 12, 2025

• Time I U.S. Added to Global Human Rights Watchlist Over Declining Civil Liberties
• Devex I Congressional Hearing Kicks Off DFC Reauthorization Efforts
• Devex I Gilead Sciences: USAID Funding Cuts Jeopardize Breakthrough Drugs and Research
• Devex I Opinion I Trump’s War On Science Imperils Global Development and Cooperation
• Devex I Trump’s New ‘Loyalty Test’ for UN and Aid Groups
• Devex I As Aid Dwindles, Can Philanthropy Rewrite the Rules of Giving?

March 11, 2025

• Politico I USAID Official Tells Remaining Staffers: Shred and Burn All Your Documents
• AP News I Court Asked to Intervene After Email Tells USAID Workers to Destroy Classified Documents
• Devex I Judge Orders Trump to Pay USAID Partners, Rejects ‘Unbounded’ Power
• Inside Medicine I Public Health Under Siege. The Legal Battles Shaping the Future of US Medicine, Public Health, and Science.
• Undark I Federal Science Hamstrung by DOGE’s Credit Card Spending Limit
• Devex I Trump Taps Project 2025’s Russell Vought to USADF, IAF Boards

March 10, 2025

• New York Times I Judge Orders U.S.A.I.D. and State Dept. to Pay Funds ‘Unlawfully’ Withheld
• Devex I Remaining USAID Programs Now Under State Department, 5,200 Programs Canceled
• Devex I As the USAID Dust Settles, What’s the Development Job Market Outlook?
• Washington Post I NIH to Terminate or Limit Grants Related to Vaccine Hesitancy and Uptake
• ProPublica I National Cancer Institute Employees Can’t Publish Information on These Topics Without Special Approval
• The New Humanitarian I The Data Streams That Underpin Humanitarian Response Are About to Collapse

March 9, 2025

• STAT I HHS Makes $25,000 Buyout Offer to Most of Its Employees

March 7, 2025

• STAT+ I NIH Abruptly Terminates Millions in Research Grants, Defying Court Orders
• STAT+ I NIH Has Paused Patenting of Discoveries, Slowing Their Use in Developing Treatments
• ABC I NIH Terminating Active Research Grants Related to LGBTQ+, DEI Studies
• Devex I Trump Administration Rapidly Guts the Inter-American Foundation
• Washington Post I Global Health Council: Judge Orders USAID Payments to Some Foreign Aid Groups by Monday

March 6, 2025

• New York Times I FHI 360: Defunded Aid Programs Are Asked by Trump Administration to Prove Their Value, on a Scale of 1 to 5
• Washington Post I Trump’s Foreign Aid Demolition Hits Major Christian Charities
• Washington Post I Global Health Council: Judge Orders USAID Payments to Some Foreign Aid Groups by Monday
• Devex I What Peter Marocco Told Lawmakers About USAID at a Closed-Door Meeting
• Devex I DOGE Takes Over US African Development Foundation
• Nature I NIH to Terminate Hundreds of Active Research Grants
• NIH I NIH Centralizes Peer Review to Improve Efficiency and Strengthen Integrity
• Devex I Judge Denies Temporary Order in USAID Personal Services Contractors Case

March 5, 2025

• NYT | Supreme Court Rejects Trump’s Bid to Freeze Foreign Aid 
• NPR | Supreme Court Upholds a Lower Court Order to Force USAID to Pay Contractors
• KFF | CDC Firings Undermine Public Health Work Far Beyond Washington
• Reuters | US Judge Bars Trump Administration from Cutting NIH Research Funding
• Devex | Opinion: Trump Aid Shock Underscores Need for More Made-in-Africa Medicine
• Science | Trump Tracker
• Washington Post I Supreme Court Reinstates Order for the Trump Administration to Un-Freeze Foreign Aid
• Washington Post I NIH Reels with Fear, Uncertainty about Future of Scientific Research
• STAT I Judge Issues Preliminary Injunction Blocking Trump Cuts to NIH Research Overhead Payments 
• STAT I CDC Invites Back About 180 Fired Employees, Including Some Who Help Fight Outbreaks
• Devex I ‘That Money is Going to Sink Us’: USAID-Funded Startups Fight to Survive

March 4, 2025

• KFF | Poll: Two Thirds Believe Dissolving USAID Will Lead to More Illness and Death Globally, While Nearly Half Say It Would Significantly Reduce the Budget Deficit and Fund Domestic Programs
• Devex | How Will the Rest of the World Respond to Lights-Out at USAID?
• Inside Medicine I Some CDC Probationary Employees Have Been Reinstated. “We Apologize for Any Disruption that this May Have Caused.”

March 3, 2025

• Devex | Funding Freeze on Us Foreign Aid Is ‘Over,’ Trump Administration Claims
• Devex | The Urgent Need to Rethink Africa’s Health Financing
• STAT+ I NIH Terminates Ongoing Grants for LGBTQ+ Research

March 2, 2025

• NYT | U.S.A.I.D. Memos Detail Human Costs of Cuts to Foreign Aid
• CNN I NC Global Health Alliance: ‘They Are Harming Ordinary People’: Trump’s Funding Cuts Are Taking a Toll in North Carolina
• The Hill I Global Health Council: USAID Cuts Could Send Global Health Into Chaos

March 1, 2025

• AFP | Groups Say Millions Already Hit as US Guts Aid
• Pro Publica I The Trump Administration Said These Aid Programs Saved Lives. It Canceled Them Anyway.

February 28, 2025

• Devex | ‘Disaster’ as Health Programs Reel from USAID Terminations
• Devex | UN Chief: US Cuts Make the World Less Healthy, Safe, and Prosperous
• Devex | Aid Groups Present Case to Supreme Court as Decision Looms
• Devex | Critical Global Surveys Fall Casualty to US Foreign Aid Gutting
• NPR | On Thursday Word Came: No More USAID Funds for a Clinic That Gets HIV Meds to Kids
• The Guardian | US Shutdown of HIV/AIDS Funding ‘Could Lead To 500,000 Deaths in South Africa’
• Forbes | Kenyan Health Worker On USAID Cuts — ‘We Are Going To Choose Now Between Food And Drugs’
• Science | ‘A Bloodbath’: HIV Field is Reeling After Billions in U.S. Funding Are Axed
• Washington Post I Global Health Council: Groups Urge Supreme Court to Keep Deadline for USAID to Pay $2 Billion
• Devex I USAID Asks Partners for Information on Recently Cut Awards
• Huffington Post I CDC Staff Prohibited From Co-Authoring Papers With World Health Organization Personnel

February 27, 2025

• Devex | Supreme Court Pauses Order to Release Billions of Dollars in Foreign Aid
• Health Policy Watch | US Terminates Thousands of Life-Saving Global Health Grants Including for HIV, TB and Malaria
• NYT | U.S. Terminates Funding for Polio, HIV, Malaria and Nutrition Programs Around the World
• KFF | The Trump Administration’s Dismantling of Global Health: What’s Next
• Inside Medicine I FDA Vaccine Meeting Abruptly Canceled. Meeting Was to Determine 2025-2026 Influenza Vaccine Composition.
• CBC I USAID Workers Pack Belongings, as Trump Administration Targets 90% of Foreign Aid Contracts
• The Atlantic I Inside the Collapse at the NIH
• Politico I Global Health Council: USAID Cuts Expected to Devastate Global Health

February 26, 2025

• Devex | Nearly 10,000 Awards Cut from USAID, State Department
• Reuters | Trump Blocked From Imposing Sweeping Federal Funding Freeze
• NYT | Trump Administration Ends Global Health Research Program
• NPR | The Trump Administration Kills Nearly All USAID Programs

February 25, 2025

• NYT | President Trump’s Cuts to Medical Research
• NPR | Judge Tells Trump Administration It Has Less Than 2 Days to Resume USAID Funding
• Devex I Why Are Thousands Being Culled from USAID, and Who Will Be Left Standing?
• Washington Post I Judge Orders Trump Administration to Pay Millions in USAID Funds
• SF Community Health Center: Our Fight Begins
• Devex I Judge Orders USAID to Release Millions of Dollars in Foreign Aid
• STAT I CDC Will No Longer Process Transgender Data

February 24, 2025

• NPR | Trump Officials Will Put 4,700 USAID Employees on Leave and Eliminate 1,600 Jobs
• Devex I USAID Staff Start Receiving Termination Letters
• STAT I U.S. Joins WHO-Led Flu Vaccine Meeting, Despite Planned Withdrawal from Agency
• STAT I Some NIH Study Sections Will Resume Grant Reviews, but Final Funding Decisions Are Still in Limbo

For further sources, see our previous recaps here and here.