Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

9. Agency for International Development · Major · Needs Congress

Return USAID to its 2019 pre-pandemic budget level

Done

254 9. Agency for International Development

“The next conservative Administration should scale back USAID’s global footprint by, at a minimum, returning to the agency’s 2019 pre–COVID-19 pandemic budget level.”

What has happened

  1. Done

    The FY2026 National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs appropriations (Division F of Public Law 119-75) appropriate nothing to USAID as an agency; foreign-assistance accounts are appropriated to State.

  2. Done

    The Rescissions Act of 2025 (Public Law 119-28) canceled about $8.6 billion of unobligated foreign-assistance budget authority, including $2.5 billion Development Assistance, $1.65 billion Economic Support Fund, $500 million Global Health Programs, $800 million Migration and Refugee Assistance, $496 million International Disaster Assistance and $125 million USAID Operating Expenses — Congress's ratification of the cut.

  3. Done

    USAID ceased implementing foreign assistance; programs aligned with administration policy moved to the State Department. The footprint was not scaled back to 2019 — the agency was closed, which the Mandate's "at a minimum" language encompasses.

  4. Partially done

    State and USAID notified Congress of a reorganization that would move certain USAID functions into the Department by 2025-07-01 and discontinue the rest; Secretary Rubio's statement: USAID "strayed from its original mission long ago … the gains were too few and the costs were too high."

  5. Attempted

    Executive Order 14169 paused new obligations and disbursements of U.S. foreign development assistance for a 90-day review; nothing had yet changed the agency's size or budget.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

  • The English original of the 2025-07-01 statement was not found at a guessable state.gov address (https://www.state.gov/making-foreign-aid-great-again does not exist); the Department’s own Spanish translation page carries the date and the sentence and is the Evidence. A search snippet of the English text (“As of July 1, 2025, USAID officially ceased implementing foreign assistance”) matched it.
  • Budget comparison: FY2019 USAID-managed appropriations were roughly $20 billion; the FY2026 act (text read at https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-119publ75/html/PLAW-119publ75.htm) has no USAID heading at all — “Agency for International Development” appears once, in an HHS staffing provision in Division B. A dollar-for-dollar comparison of the successor State accounts against 2019 was not made.
  • Litigation over the dismantling (American Foreign Service Association v. Trump, D.D.C. 1:25-cv-01030; D.C. Cir. 25-5184; opinions of 2025-05-14, 2025-06-17 and 2025-06-20 in the federal records we keep and search) did not stop the July 1 transition; the opinions were not read and are leads.
  • Related: #470 (the freeze), #744 (AGOA), and the Chapter 9 Schedule F pilot (#125).
Action
restrict
Object
USAID budget / global footprint
ID
642