Congress steps up fight against Trump’s brutal aid cuts
Congress bids to scale back Donald Trump’s brutal foreign aid cuts
- US Congress is seeking to significantly scale back Donald Trump’s cuts to foreign aid, aiming to restore funding for crucial global programmes.
- Trump had previously frozen all overseas assistance and cancelled numerous programmes, leading to severe disruptions in health services, drug shortages, and deaths in lower-income countries.
- Revised spending bills propose £37 billion for global programmes, including £7 billion for global health, which is substantially more than Trump's requested £3 billion.
- Specific allocations include £373 million for family planning and reproductive health, £224 million for the global vaccine alliance Gavi, and £34 million for UNAIDS, all areas Trump had sought to cut or eliminate.
- Although House and Senate negotiators have agreed on these funds, the bills still require a vote, and there is uncertainty whether Trump would sign them into law or comply with the agreed spending.