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Reuters
07-03-2025
- Business
- Reuters
US foreign aid orgs say they are owed more than $671 mln by Monday deadline
March 7 - U.S. foreign aid organizations suing President Donald Trump's administration over its freeze of nearly all foreign aid spending said on Friday that they are owed more than $671 million for past work that a court has ordered be paid by a Monday deadline. Foreign aid contractors involved in the lawsuit said in a filing in Washington, D.C., federal court that they have outstanding invoices totaling about $420 million, and requests for drawdowns on letters of credit for about $250 million, for past work done for the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department. The plaintiffs include two contractor associations - the Global Health Council and the Small Business Association for International Companies - and six individual contractors including development firm Chemonics International and the American Bar Association. In a related case, non-profit grant recipients AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and the Journalism Development Network said they are owed about $400,000 and $1.25 million, respectively. The administration has repeatedly resisted court orders to release funds over the course of the lawsuit, and in a Thursday court filing said it could take up to 10 days to pay the plaintiffs, some of which have said they will be forced to shut down if not paid immediately. However, U.S. District Judge Amir Ali in Washington said at a hearing on Thursday that he believed payments already made showed that the deadline was feasible. Trump, a Republican, ordered a 90-day pause on all foreign aid payments in his first day in office, throwing U.S. humanitarian programs worldwide into chaos. In the following weeks, USAID was gutted under the oversight of Trump's billionaire ally Elon Musk, with most of its employees placed on leave or fired and its programs abroad frozen. Ali imposed the deadline of 6:00 p.m. (2300 GMT) this coming Monday after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block an earlier order by Ali setting a February 26 deadline for releasing close to $2 billion for past work. The new deadline applies only to the portion of that money owed to the organizations that are part of the lawsuit. Ali said at Thursday's hearing that he would issue an order later about when the government must pay out the rest of the money. Ali, who was appointed by Trump's Democratic predecessor Joe Biden, is also considering the plaintiffs' request to reverse the government's decision last month permanently canceling most of its foreign aid contracts going forward.
Axios
07-03-2025
- Business
- Axios
Judge orders Trump admin to pay USAID partners millions by Monday
A federal judge gave the Trump administration until 6pm Monday ET to make some outstanding foreign aid payments to USAID partners, per multiple reports on Thursday. The big picture: U.S. District Judge Amir Ali's ruling during a case involving several nonprofits and aid groups including the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and the Global Health Council comes one day after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to halt the lower court judge's order requiring the Trump administration to unfreeze some $1.9 billion in foreign aid payments. State of play: The groups sued the Trump administration after it froze foreign aid as part of a DOGE-led federal government cuts and large-scale dismantling of USAID, which was the world's largest humanitarian aid organization. Ali said Thursday he thought it was "feasible" for the first set of payments to be made by the Monday deadline, per the Washington Post. What they're saying: Attorneys for the Trump administration said in a filing officials had worked overnight to certify some "$70.3 million in additional payments" to the groups, which were expected to be released on Thursday. "It will take another day or so for those payments to be received vendors accounts," the filing added. "It is currently anticipated that all legitimate payments owed to the Plaintiffs will be processed within days, and not more than ten working days." Representatives for the Trump administration and did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment in the evening. Go deeper: Exclusive: Oversight Dems open probe into Trump's USAID purge
Yahoo
02-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
USAID cuts could send global health into chaos
The Trump administration's decision to end almost all foreign aid spending from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is poised to plunge global health into chaos. The contract terminations announced Wednesday will end grants for HIV treatments and prevention, tuberculosis, polio, malaria, Ebola and numerous other diseases and conditions. Nutrition assistance programs for infants in developing countries have also been halted, organizations said. Nearly 5,800 projects funded by USAID have been terminated, ending the hope that contracts previously frozen might have been restarted. 'This reckless and unilateral move will cost millions of lives around the world,' said the Global Health Council, an alliance of nonprofit organizations and companies that receive U.S. foreign aid funding, in a statement. 'With the stroke of a pen, the U.S. government has gutted decades of progress in global health, development, and humanitarian aid — without due process, transparency, or good faith consideration of the consequences,' the council said. The Global Health Council is one of the nonprofits that have challenged a freeze on foreign aid. Shortly after taking office, the Trump administration suspended nearly all foreign assistance, saying the funds needed to undergo a 90-day review to ensure compliance with the administration's policies. The freeze led to thousands of humanitarian workers losing their jobs and life-threatening delays in food and medicine to impoverished areas around the world. A few days later, the State Department issued stop work orders on foreign assistance funded by or through the State Department and USAID, including existing awards. The stop-work orders came without warning, sowing immediate chaos and confusion. The State Department then issued waivers to allow certain 'lifesaving' programs, including the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), to continue. But the waivers were unevenly applied, and organizations granted waivers said they still weren't being paid. International health groups said they were under the impression the waivers would continue to apply through the 90-day review period. 'The chaos and confusion of the last four weeks we thought had reached a fever pitch but what happened [Wednesday] night takes this to a new dimension. Every project imaginable in HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, nutritional support, has now been terminated,' said Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, an international nonprofit focused on HIV prevention and one of the plaintiffs in the effort to unfreeze funding. 'The only strategy the administration seems to have is to sow chaos and confusion. There's no effort to look at what aligns with foreign policy, diplomacy, partnerships. And no strategy to prepare for public health threats,' Warren said. But on Wednesday night, the administration said it had concluded a 'a good-faith, individualized assessment' of USAID's 6,300 grants in less than a month. 'Secretary [of State Marco] Rubio has now made a final decision with respect to each award, on an individualized basis, affirmatively electing to either retain the award or terminate it pursuant to the terms of the instrument or independent legal authority as inconsistent with the national interests and foreign policy of the United States,' the administration said in a court filing. The State Department has said the agency spared critical awards for lifesaving medical treatment, including those that had been operating under a waiver from the earlier funding freeze, but health groups say that is not the case. For instance, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation said three of its primary USAID agreements, which had received approval to resume limited work under the State Department's waiver for lifesaving work, were terminated. The projects supported more than 350,000 people on HIV treatment, including nearly 10,000 children and more than 10,000 HIV-positive pregnant people in Lesotho, Eswatini, and Tanzania. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) said 46 of its USAID and State Department programs were canceled, including funding for operating nutrition assistance centers, which help severely malnourished children. Those had been operating under a waiver. The Joint United Nations HIV/AIDS program said its U.S. government funding was also terminated. Global health experts said the effects of the cuts will be disastrous, both in terms of health and for how the U.S. is seen throughout the rest of the world. If a person with HIV stops taking the medication, the virus is no longer suppressed and can multiply, leading to weakened immune systems, illness and then potential spread to others. For malaria, the cuts mean programs that supplied mosquito nets for cribs won't continue, which means fewer babies protected from malaria. That increases malaria infections, which then can increase deaths. 'It's just a cascading effect on almost every level that ultimately leads to more people being ill, more people dying, and ultimately more costs associated with running these programs and caring for these people,' said Jirair Ratevosian, a fellow at Duke University's Global Health Institute who worked as a chief of staff for the PEPFAR program. 'So it's counterintuitive to what we're trying to do.' Jen Kates, a senior vice president and director of the Global Health & HIV Policy Program at KFF, said the terminations could set back years of health progress that the U.S. and others have been working toward in developing countries. 'The U.S., frankly, has been one of the main forces behind health achievements in low- and middle-income countries. So a lot of money was provided to make these gains, and they could be set back,' Kates said. 'The extent of the damage is not known yet, but I think in a lot of cases it might be hard to recover easily, even with the replacement funds at some point in the future.' Jocelyn Wyatt, CEO of the aid group Alight, said she had to terminate programs for millions of displaced people in Sudan, Somalia and South Sudan. Wyatt said Alight was the largest health provider in Sudan, serving 2.1 million people. They operated under a waiver during the earlier funding freeze, but this week had to close 33 health clinics in the country. In Somalia, the group had to close 13 health centers, as well as a mobile clinic. In Sudan, it had to stop water and sanitation services and close three camps for displaced people and refugees. 'We're working in very remote regions. Humanitarian assistance was already very scarce. There were not a lot of services before, and now there's none,' Wyatt said. 'These are lifesaving services. There's no alternative, and people will die.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
02-03-2025
- Health
- The Hill
USAID cuts could send global health into chaos
The Trump administration's decision to end almost all foreign aid spending from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is poised to plunge global health into chaos. The contract terminations announced Wednesday will end grants for HIV treatments and prevention, tuberculosis, polio, malaria, Ebola and numerous other diseases and conditions. Nutrition assistance programs for infants in developing countries have also been halted, organizations said. Nearly 5,800 projects funded by USAID have been terminated, ending the hope that contracts previously frozen might have been restarted. 'This reckless and unilateral move will cost millions of lives around the world,' said the Global Health Council, an alliance of nonprofit organizations and companies that receive U.S. foreign aid funding, in a statement. 'With the stroke of a pen, the U.S. government has gutted decades of progress in global health, development, and humanitarian aid — without due process, transparency, or good faith consideration of the consequences,' the council said. The Global Health Council is one of the nonprofits that have challenged a freeze on foreign aid. Shortly after taking office, the Trump administration suspended nearly all foreign assistance, saying the funds needed to undergo a 90-day review to ensure compliance with the administration's policies. The freeze led to thousands of humanitarian workers losing their jobs and life-threatening delays in food and medicine to impoverished areas around the world. A few days later, the State Department issued stop work orders on foreign assistance funded by or through the State Department and USAID, including existing awards. The stop-work orders came without warning, sowing immediate chaos and confusion. The State Department then issued waivers to allow certain 'lifesaving' programs, including the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), to continue. But the waivers were unevenly applied, and organizations granted waivers said they still weren't being paid. International health groups said they were under the impression the waivers would continue to apply through the 90-day review period. 'The chaos and confusion of the last four weeks we thought had reached a fever pitch but what happened [Wednesday] night takes this to a new dimension. Every project imaginable in HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, nutritional support, has now been terminated,' said Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, an international nonprofit focused on HIV prevention and one of the plaintiffs in the effort to unfreeze funding. 'The only strategy the administration seems to have is to sow chaos and confusion. There's no effort to look at what aligns with foreign policy, diplomacy, partnerships. And no strategy to prepare for public health threats,' Warren said. But on Wednesday night, the administration said it had concluded a 'a good-faith, individualized assessment' of USAID's 6,300 grants in less than a month. 'Secretary [of State Marco] Rubio has now made a final decision with respect to each award, on an individualized basis, affirmatively electing to either retain the award or terminate it pursuant to the terms of the instrument or independent legal authority as inconsistent with the national interests and foreign policy of the United States,' the administration said in a court filing. The State Department has said the agency spared critical awards for lifesaving medical treatment, including those that had been operating under a waiver from the earlier funding freeze, but health groups say that is not the case. For instance, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation said three of its primary USAID agreements, which had received approval to resume limited work under the State Department's waiver for lifesaving work, were terminated. The projects supported more than 350,000 people on HIV treatment, including nearly 10,000 children and more than 10,000 HIV-positive pregnant people in Lesotho, Eswatini, and Tanzania. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) said 46 of its USAID and State Department programs were canceled, including funding for operating nutrition assistance centers, which help severely malnourished children. Those had been operating under a waiver. The Joint United Nations HIV/AIDS program said its U.S. government funding was also terminated. Global health experts said the effects of the cuts will be disastrous, both in terms of health and for how the U.S. is seen throughout the rest of the world. If a person with HIV stops taking the medication, the virus is no longer suppressed and can multiply, leading to weakened immune systems, illness and then potential spread to others. For malaria, the cuts mean programs that supplied mosquito nets for cribs won't continue, which means fewer babies protected from malaria. That increases malaria infections, which then can increase deaths. 'It's just a cascading effect on almost every level that ultimately leads to more people being ill, more people dying, and ultimately more costs associated with running these programs and caring for these people,' said Jirair Ratevosian, a fellow at Duke University's Global Health Institute who worked as a chief of staff for the PEPFAR program. 'So it's counterintuitive to what we're trying to do.' Jen Kates, a senior vice president and director of the Global Health & HIV Policy Program at KFF, said the terminations could set back years of health progress that the U.S. and others have been working toward in developing countries. 'The U.S., frankly, has been one of the main forces behind health achievements in low- and middle-income countries. So a lot of money was provided to make these gains, and they could be set back,' Kates said. 'The extent of the damage is not known yet, but I think in a lot of cases it might be hard to recover easily, even with the replacement funds at some point in the future.' Jocelyn Wyatt, CEO of the aid group Alight, said she had to terminate programs for millions of displaced people in Sudan, Somalia and South Sudan. Wyatt said Alight was the largest health provider in Sudan, serving 2.1 million people. They operated under a waiver during the earlier funding freeze, but this week had to close 33 health clinics in the country. In Somalia, the group had to close 13 health centers, as well as a mobile clinic. In Sudan, it had to stop water and sanitation services and close three camps for displaced people and refugees. 'We're working in very remote regions. Humanitarian assistance was already very scarce. There were not a lot of services before, and now there's none,' Wyatt said. 'These are lifesaving services. There's no alternative, and people will die.'
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
USAID cuts expected to devastate global health
The Trump administration has decided that hundreds of programs aimed at helping people in the world's poorest countries stay alive are no longer in the national interest. The sweeping cuts in foreign aid announced Wednesday will slash HIV treatment, prevention and research, health services to treat malaria, and care for new mothers and their babies, among other lifesaving programs, say global health and humanitarian groups whose contracts were cut. It will also halt basic health services for people displaced by conflict, such as those in Sudan or Gaza. 'This reckless and unilateral move will cost millions of lives around the world,' the Global Health Council, an alliance of nonprofits and companies which receive U.S. foreign aid funding, said in a statement. The council is one of the plaintiffs that's challenged the foreign aid cuts in court. President Donald Trump froze foreign aid shortly after taking office, saying his administration would review the funding to ensure it aligned with Trump's 'America First' policy. Soon thereafter, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said lifesaving aid would continue under a waiver. But the administration said Wednesday the review was over. The list of programs cut included many aimed at saving lives. Among them were funds provided by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, better known as PEPFAR, a program credited with saving 25 million lives globally since former President George W. Bush started it in 2003. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts granted the administration a respite Wednesday from a decision by a lower-court judge who had ordered the administration to release frozen funds since it had not conducted 'a good-faith, individualized assessment' of the grants and contracts it had halted. In its appeal to Roberts, the administration said it had completed the assessment, and it told the lower court it was ending more than 90 percent of 6,300 USAID awards, worth $54 billion, and 60 percent of the State Department's 6,800 awards, worth $4.4 billion. 'Secretary [of State Marco] Rubio has now made a final decision with respect to each award, on an individual basis, affirmatively electing to either retain the award or terminate it … as inconsistent with the national interests and foreign policy of the United States,' the court document stated. Global health researchers and providers worry that cutting access to prevention and treatment services for HIV and malaria will lead to resistance to the drugs that treat them, rendering those drugs mostly ineffective in the future. 'With HIV prevention programs halting immediately, we are headed for disaster,' said Yvette Raphael, the executive director at Advocacy for Prevention of HIV and AIDS in South Africa. PEPFAR provides nearly a fifth of HIV/AIDS funding in the country, which has more than 7 million people living with HIV, the highest in the world. A State Department spokesperson said USAID 'retained critical awards, including food assistance; life-saving medical treatments for HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria; and critical support for nations like Lebanon, Haiti, Venezuela, Cuba, and others.' The spokesperson and the State Department did not immediately respond to questions about why programs covered by Rubio's waiver were terminated. Since midday Wednesday, the administration canceled at least seven awards for lifesaving humanitarian needs such as food assistance, shelter and emergency health care it had given to partners to support the Gaza relief effort, including to Catholic Relief Services and International Medical Corps, according to a USAID official familiar with the matter granted anonymity for fear of reprisal. The awards totaled at least $100 million, according to the official. Those awards had gotten waivers from Rubio on Jan. 31, although the partners carrying out the aid work haven't been paid since the start of the administration. Other awards are still active for the conflict, but it's unclear what will happen to them. Los Angeles-based International Medical Corps said in a statement that it had received cancellation notices for the majority of its U.S. government-funded programs and 'this loss of funding will significantly impact our lifesaving global operations.' A spokesperson for Baltimore-based Catholic Relief Services declined to comment. The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation in Washington, which has provided HIV treatment services in several African countries, said Thursday that agreements with USAID supporting more than 350,000 people, including nearly 10,000 children and more than 10,000 HIV-positive pregnant women, were terminated. The programs had previously received approval to resume limited work under Rubio's waiver, the organization said. Alight, a Minneapolis nonprofit that works with displaced people around the world, said it received termination notices for programs in Sudan, Somalia and South Sudan, which were providing emergency health care services, including for severely malnourished children and women suffering from pregnancy complications in remote areas. The program in Sudan, which was serving about 2.1 million people displaced by the civil war in the country, had continued during the foreign aid freeze as part of the waiver, said Jocelyn Wyatt, Alight's CEO. 'We closed 33 primary health clinics in Sudan, and 12 health facilities in Somalia and water and sanitation services across three camps in Darfur,' she said. The organization also runs six stabilization centers for severely malnourished children in Sudan that it will keep open, hoping to raise private funding to finance them, Wyatt said. A program providing tests and medicines for malaria for more than 1 million people in Myanmar was also terminated, according to documents seen by POLITICO. The number of malaria cases has increased by nearly 800 percent in some parts of the country over the last few years, since the conflict there began, according to one former USAID contractor who worked on the program speaking anonymously for fear of reprisals. The United Nations HIV program, called UNAIDS, also had its U.S. funding terminated. The U.S. provided most of the organization's funding in 2023: nearly $96 million, according to a UNAIDS document.
