Administration diverts $2 billion in health funds to pay for USAID's own closure (May 7, 2026 )
May 7, 2026 — The Trump administration notified Congress it planned to redirect $2 billion in funds appropriated by Congress specifically for global health programs — covering malaria, tuberculosis, maternal and child health, nutrition, global health security, and HIV/AIDS — to cover the administrative costs of closing USAID itself. The repurposing of congressionally appropriated disease-fighting funds to pay for the dismantling of the agency that delivered them was described by health policy experts as an extraordinary act that potentially violated the Impoundment Control Act.
A Health Security Policy Academy analysis estimated that a $2 billion reduction from these programs could lead to 121,000 preventable deaths from tuberculosis and at least 47,600 preventable deaths from malaria — directly attributable to the diversion. This came on top of the cumulative devastation already documented: a Harvard and Boston University study published in October 2025 had projected that U.S. bilateral health aid cuts could result in 2.5 million additional pediatric TB cases and 340,000 child TB deaths in the next decade; if U.S. support for the Global Fund was also withdrawn, those numbers could rise to 8.9 million child TB cases and 1.5 million child deaths.
The administration's FY2027 budget reiterated proposals to cut global health spending by roughly 60 percent, from approximately $10 billion to under $4 billion. Congress continued to resist the deepest cuts, with bipartisan support for PEPFAR in particular holding in committee. But implementation of existing programs remained severely impaired: as of late March 2026, more than 14 months after the initial freeze, HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria programs remained "significantly impaired" across Africa and Southeast Asia, according to Physicians for Human Rights.
| https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/07/world/trump-administration-usaid-global-health-funding-intl |