United States Agency for International Development

On a November morning in 1961, President John F. Kennedy signed an executive order creating USAID, a new agency designed to channel American foreign aid as a counterweight to Soviet expansion. For more than six decades, it operated field missions in over 100 countries, funding programs in global health, food security, education, and democratic governance. Its annual budget averaged $23 billion from 2001 to 2024, and its health initiatives alone were estimated to save between 4.1 and 4.7 million lives each year, including 1.2 to 1.7 million children under five.

The agency's work reached into some of the world's most fragile places. It led the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which provided antiretroviral drugs to millions of people across sub-Saharan Africa. It delivered emergency food aid during famines in Somalia and Ethiopia. It funded election monitoring in fledgling democracies and trained local health workers to combat Ebola in West Africa.

In early 2025, the Trump administration announced a plan to cut 83% of USAID's projects and move its remaining functions under the State Department, with the goal of dismantling the agency by September 2026. This executive action triggered legal and political battles, as Congress had established USAID as an independent agency in 1998, meaning only legislation can formally abolish it. As of mid-2025, the agency technically still exists, but its global footprint has been drastically reduced, and thousands of contracts have been terminated.[edit]