US budget fight is ‘reset’ moment for foreign aid priorities

Despite a government shutdown, it’s time for U.S.-funded international organizations — and members of Congress — to speak up about their humanitarian and development priorities, according to Christy Gleason, chief policy officer at Save the Children US. “As I think we've all learned this year, we are not going to go back to what the 2023 budget looked like, or the 2021 budget looked like in that form,” she said during a Devex Impact House event on the sidelines of the World Bank-International Monetary Fund annual meetings earlier this month. “But I look at this process as an opportunity to start to reset the table for what can come.” Still, she added, to say she was optimistic “would be a stretch.” Unlike in years past, this time around, there has not been much input from members of Congress on the foreign assistance budget or the direction of aid work being undertaken by the U.S. State Department, which has absorbed what little remains of USAID. The changes compared to past budget processes don’t stop there: The Trump administration also tried to employ a rare maneuver known as a “pocket rescission” to cancel billions of dollars in foreign assistance funding that was already approved by Congress in previous fiscal years. In a pocket rescission, the request comes so close to the end of the fiscal year that it effectively bypasses congressional approval. “I don’t think this is the last time we will hear about pocket rescissions in this term,” Gleason said. “Especially, frankly, if these do not only go into effect, but stay in effect — if there’s no mechanism by which they’re rolled back or challenged in some way.” In the immediate term, there are questions about what U.S. development and humanitarian assistance will entail. And in the longer term — from the next two years and onward — there are broader questions around the future of U.S. foreign assistance. “Because this isn’t going to look like what it looked like in the immediate past,” Gleason said. “And … there’s a lot to that. There is, how does the State Department continue to evolve?” Another question is how the State Department will fund U.S. development work abroad — for example, more decisions might get made at the regional level or embassies instead of Washington, and projects may be likelier to get funded through bilateral compacts between the U.S. and other countries, she said. And it’s time for organizations to face those changes head-on, she added. “What’s incumbent on us … is to go, OK, ‘The moment for reacting is over,’” she said. “This is the moment to dust yourself off and make decisions about how we continue to deliver on a mission that Save the Children has delivered on for decades. How do we continue to do that in this era? Because we know that kids need the support, and we are committed to delivering it.” Update, Oct. 30, 2025: This article has been updated to add more details on what a pocket rescission maneuver does.