I was excited to speak with my colleagues Adva Saldinger, Elissa Miolene, and Michael Igoe for our latest Pro Briefing (if you missed it, you can catch the recap this week). We reflected on the epochal changes to U.S. foreign assistance last year and, more importantly, discussed what’s to come this year. I say more importantly because I think we’re all ready to move on from 2025 and move forward in 2026.
The Trump administration and Congress seem ready to do just that as they rush to put their stamp on rebuilding the aid architecture. As we’ve been reporting, the State Department, which absorbed what was left of USAID, has forged ahead with signing bilateral health compacts with African nations as part of its overall strategy to shift financial responsibility onto recipient governments. Meanwhile, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation landed a beefed-up portfolio as part of the administration’s embrace of a “trade, not aid” agenda.
Even Congress — largely relegated to the sidelines last year — clinched a $50 billion compromise to fund U.S. foreign assistance. As of this writing, that bill was in limbo, given the furor over the administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota, which has led to two deaths and a congressional showdown over government spending. But it appears the Senate and White House have reached a last-minute deal to pass most of the funding bills, cooling tensions. Of course, don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched in this fraught and fragile political environment, but it does look like the foreign aid compromise will survive..