Trump officials quietly clash with Congress on aid

Trump officials – Eight months into the fiscal year, the Trump administration is failing to follow multiple foreign-aid spending directives Congress wrote into law—according to a review of government records and interviews—while lawmakers and legal experts warn the executive br

On a global health budget Congress explicitly carved up for HIV. tuberculosis and malaria. the money is arriving late—or not arriving at all. Internally and in documents lawmakers have received. the story is no longer just about whether the United States supports foreign aid. It’s about who gets to decide when approved aid is obligated and spent.

After President Donald Trump last year upended the world’s largest foreign aid provider. terminating thousands of programs and firing nearly all of its staff. his plan for the agency was straightforward: eliminate it entirely. But USAID was created by Congress, and Trump officials still needed lawmakers’ permission to shutter it. This year, they asked Congress for permission to shut the U.S. Agency for International Development and dramatically reduce federal spending on food, medicine and lifesaving work around the world.

Congress said no. Lawmakers insisted USAID remain—even in a diminished form—and wrote detailed instructions for the State Department’s foreign aid spending into law. Their package directed the State Department to spend $9.4 billion on global health to treat and prevent maladies including HIV. tuberculosis and malaria. plus more than $5 billion on emergency humanitarian aid. It also required regular, detailed reports about how the administration spent the money. Trump signed the bill, enshrining those orders into law.

Now, eight months into the fiscal year, Trump officials are failing to follow many of those directives, according to a ProPublica review of government records and interviews with legal experts, current and former government employees, and members of Congress.

Officials have delayed spending on global health, have not issued funds for some projects and have labeled money destined for humanitarian aid as “unallocated” to control how it can be spent. When lawmakers have asked about those actions, officials often have not responded.

The dispute isn’t confined to one program or one budget line. Legal scholars described a constitutional crisis they say has been unfolding since the Trump administration began battling with Congress over spending from “Day 1. ” a breakdown of the division of power among the three branches of federal government. Foreign aid is where that struggle shows up most starkly: last year. the administration took the unprecedented step of gutting USAID. terminating thousands of aid programs and letting funding expire without permission from Congress. according to the reporting.

“It is a huge grab of power from the president, taking powers away from Congress,” said David Super, a professor of law and economics at Georgetown University and a leading scholar on administrative and constitutional law.

USAID was created by Congress decades ago to promote American diplomacy and soft power. As ProPublica previously reported. when Trump officials dismantled the agency last year—stopping payments on thousands of lifesaving programs that provided food. medicine and other supplies to impoverished nations—many people died. including children.

Even with USAID in shambles. Congress has made clear it expects the administration to continue providing foreign aid. in some cases at nearly the level it did in previous years. Sen. Brian Schatz. D-Hawaii. the ranking member of the Senate committee with oversight of foreign aid funds. said: “It’s proof that there is still broad. bipartisan support for America showing up in the world. helping people and working with our allies and partners on shared challenges. not just because it’s the right thing to do. but because it directly benefits us.” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the committee’s chair, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

But the administration has used several moves to obstruct Congress’ directives.

The Office of Management and Budget—run by Russell Vought—helped block the spending of aid money last year. This year, it has labeled both humanitarian aid and global health money as “unallocated,” meaning the OMB must approve how it is spent.

Legal scholars say these moves, along with the State Department’s delays, likely violate the law. Bobby Kogan. an OMB adviser under former President Joe Biden currently with the Center for American Progress. argued that slow-walking foreign aid is not abstract—it’s deadly. “If you spend no money for a year and all the clinics close, then those people die,” he said.

The State Department. according to government staff and budget documents reviewed for the reporting. has made little effort to spend some foreign aid money Congress earmarked for specific purposes. including family planning. neglected diseases and nutrition. Programs have also received fewer dollars even when Congress kept funding steady. That includes the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. the hallmark HIV program credited with saving 26 million lives around the world.

Aid on the Hill, an advocacy group created by former USAID employees, found that the administration is spending foreign aid at a much slower rate than in recent years, using an analysis of federal funding data shared with ProPublica. The State Department disputes the conclusions.

When Trump officials do lay out plans for how funds will be spent, those plans have often triggered outrage. Under the new America First Global Health Strategy. Trump officials have been signing bilateral deals with poor countries and asking for access to health data as a condition for receiving lifesaving medications the U.S. once donated.

At the center of the new foreign aid operation is Jeremy Lewin. a 29-year-old lawyer who entered government via Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and had no prior humanitarian experience. Lewin has said the strategy will save lives, reform the aid sector and reduce dependence on U.S. funding.

Since last July. Lewin has been “performing the duties” of undersecretary for foreign assistance and humanitarian affairs—an office that must be approved by Congress—but the administration has not nominated him or anyone else for the job. Six current and former career officials told the reporting that Lewin rarely. if ever. meets with career staff and doesn’t share information about his plans even with the people expected to carry them out. Lewin also insists he approve even routine payments, creating what officials describe as a stranglehold on funding and information.

Those internal frictions are matched by external breakdowns with Congress. The reporting describes letters from lawmakers going unanswered and required reports not filed.

ProPublica reviewed administration documents, including agreements, memos and internal communications, and spoke with dozens of officials, congressional staff and international experts in global health and humanitarian aid. Many people spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

The State Department spokesperson who declined to be named said officials would “continue to follow the president’s direction on foreign aid spending.” The spokesperson said: “We are not withholding any funds appropriated to. or available to. State.” The spokesperson added: “If additional funds are made available to State. we will work to obligate them consistent with legal requirements and Administration priorities.”.

The spokesperson said officials have regularly briefed Congress and that Lewin had recently spent four hours discussing foreign assistance. The spokesperson also said the department has “reduced by 80% the number of outstanding reports and letters” since Trump retook office. “We are working with Congress to spend appropriated balances and find the right future-appropriated level for global health. ” the spokesperson said.

On questions about the story, OMB spokesperson Rachel Cauley rejected the premise. “This is patently false,” she said, adding that “USAID was a weaponized government agency.” She did not answer what was false.

Spending less—or not at all—is where the dispute becomes concrete.

After nearly all of USAID’s employees were fired and most programs closed down last summer. USAID’s remnants were transferred to the State Department. Secretary of State Marco Rubio repeatedly promised lifesaving aid would continue. but the State Department began winding down many remaining programs earlier this year.

Staff have been working with what they describe as a severely constricted budget. Dr. Mike Reid. the program’s chief scientific officer until he left earlier this year over concerns about how the program is being run. said officials gave them just half of the available money for PEPFAR. Congress earmarked about $4.6 billion of the $9.4 billion for global health spending that Trump signed into law earlier this year for PEPFAR. but staff said it’s unclear how much of that they will be allowed to spend.

Congress also explicitly directed the State Department to spend $524 million on family planning, $165 million on nutrition and $109 million on neglected tropical diseases. The reporting says State Department officials have made little or no effort to spend from those pots.

In response. a State Department spokesperson said it has “continued to obligate and spend every dollar appropriated for global HIV/AIDS programs” and “we continue to implement life-saving care in global health priority areas. including HIV/AIDS. tuberculosis. malaria. and maternal and child health.” The spokesperson also said the State Department is “in the process of slowly replacing old carry-over USAID grants with new State Department grants and contracts which have fresh funds. new terms and conditions. and better align with the new America First foreign assistance strategy.”.

Global health programming. according to Aid on the Hill’s analysis of federal funding data. is moving at a much slower rate than before. The reporting says that of the more than $9 billion Congress told the Trump administration to spend on global health last year. by the end of this March the administration had obligated $190 million—about 5% of what was spent on average in that period in the five years before Trump returned to office. Typically, the reporting says officials would have obligated about half of the money by then.

Another advocacy organization, Health Security Policy Academy, published a similar analysis last week. The State Department said it “cannot and will not” verify the independent analysis but disputed the figures. saying it has “approved and implemented spending” for more than $7.5 billion to align with bilateral agreements and disaster response. “You either have vastly outdated numbers or are simply mistaken,” the spokesperson said, but did not elaborate.

Those slower timelines are taking shape while the State Department’s approach shifts away from direct U.S. management. Under the agreements signed with nations around the world—described as a cornerstone of the State Department’s foreign aid policy—the U.S. often sends funds directly to those governments. The reporting says that. in many cases. those governments have been mired in corruption scandals. and that the specifics of the programs have yet to be determined. with funding not flowing yet.

Lewin, meanwhile, has increasingly leaned on large international organizations to deliver aid once managed by USAID. The reporting says that earlier this year Lewin funneled $3.8 billion to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. part of the United Nations. quadrupling OCHA’s budget. The reporting notes Trump frequently criticizes the U.N. as ineffective. but says people familiar with the new system argue the State Department’s “skeleton crew” lacks the capacity and expertise to manage so much humanitarian aid directly after nearly all USAID staff were fired.

A copy of the agreement with OCHA reviewed for the reporting says it does not allow the U.S. to independently audit the funds. The U.N. agreed to run a pilot project for greater internal oversight. and OCHA spokesperson Eri Kaneko said the agency has worked quickly since December to disburse funds for “the most urgent and life-threatening needs. ” and that U.N. entities are “fully committed to the highest standards of accountability and oversight.”.

There is also the question of multilateral commitments. The U.S. has been the largest donor to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria since its inception. The reporting says Lewin recently announced an expanded partnership with the fund to provide HIV prevention across Africa. But last year. the Trump administration withheld payments pledged under the Biden administration. forcing the fund to reduce the amounts it gave to nations.

In this year’s spending bill, Congress directed the State Department to make good on its pledges—issuing specific instructions to Rubio on what to pay and when, and telling him to make those contributions “in a timely manner.”

A State Department spokesperson told ProPublica that “all current funding obligations have been met.” But according to a board member for the Global Fund. congressional staff and Friends of the Global Fight. an organization that advocates for the fund in the U.S. the administration should contribute another $661 million.

Schatz said: “The State Department is underfunding the Global Fund. It’s out of compliance with congressional appropriations.” When the senator asked about the funding during Rubio’s recent testimony to Congress, Rubio said, “I think that will move shortly, very quickly.”

Under the hood of all these disputes sits the power struggle over spending itself.

During previous administrations. once Congress passed laws approving federal spending. the money flowed through the OMB to designated agencies. ensuring the administration did not spend too quickly or too slowly. Under Trump. experts told ProPublica the OMB. led by Vought. has repeatedly blocked funds approved by Congress from going to agencies using legally dubious maneuvers.

Foreign aid has been a focus. After USAID was razed last year, Vought was made acting administrator and tasked with overseeing the closeout of the agency. Eric Ueland, a Vought deputy at the OMB, is currently performing those duties.

OMB has labeled more than $500 million in global health money as “unallocated. ” the reporting says. making it impossible for the State Department to spend without first going through the OMB. It also labeled most of the humanitarian aid money this way. but began releasing some of those funds in May. with the reporting stating that by June 11 the OMB released all of that money to the State Department.

Several people inside and outside the government told ProPublica they fear the administration is withholding funds because it is planning not to spend them at all. They point to last year. when the reporting says the administration clawed back some $13 billion in foreign aid that Congress passed into law—using a maneuver experts say is illegal.

The maneuver is called a “pocket rescission.” It asks Congress to cancel funds so late in the fiscal year that there is not enough time for them to be spent if Congress says no. The Government Accountability Office has said pocket rescissions are illegal. and several constitutional scholars told ProPublica the move violates the Impoundment Control Act. a law passed in 1974 after disputes with President Richard Nixon that restricts the president’s authority to withhold. or impound. funds approved by Congress.

A federal court initially blocked the maneuver as part of ongoing lawsuits tied to dismantling USAID. The administration appealed, and the Supreme Court issued an emergency ruling split along ideological lines that allowed the clawback to continue, though it did not rule on the merits.

The GAO has standing to take legal action on a pocket rescission. Edda Emmanuelli Perez, GAO’s general counsel, told ProPublica her office was continuing to review potential impoundments and monitoring ongoing litigation, and that it has not decided to file any lawsuits at this time.

Career officials and legal experts told the reporting that another rescission—legal or not—would erode Congress’ power of the purse and threaten the U.S. democracy, especially with nearly four months left in the fiscal year.

“If that’s going to be a regular occurrence. then we have a real fundamental threat to the rule of law. ” said Cerin Lindgrensavage. a former Justice Department lawyer who works for Protect Democracy. a nonprofit that fights against authoritarianism. “Congress has said spend the money, and the president doesn’t want to. The question is, who wins?. Under the law, Congress is supposed to win. Right now, the president is.”.

Budget watchers say there are signs the administration is preparing to withhold more funds.

In April. the OMB announced to Congress it was withholding funds earmarked for global health to pay hefty bills for severance fees and other costs tied to the thousands of USAID programs Trump officials terminated last year. OMB officials told lawmakers they were setting aside $19 billion to cover those costs and anticipated the total would be “substantially” less. The reporting says internal documents reviewed by ProPublica say that figure does not include the cost of the lawsuits linked to the closures or the dozens of new hires and other agency operations needed to process them.

The bulk of that money came from unspent funds for the canceled programs and other unobligated dollars from previous years. But $3.2 billion came from funds earmarked by Congress for global health and development programs in 2025. The reporting says if that $3.2 billion is not obligated by the end of September. it will expire and can no longer be spent.

Democratic lawmakers were incensed. In a letter to Trump officials, senators called it an “appalling admission of waste of U.S. taxpayer dollars” and demanded the administration use the $3.2 billion as directed. “consistent with the law.” They asked for a response by May 8. The reporting says that as of June 16 lawmakers had not received one.

Asked about the funds during the recent Senate hearing, Rubio claimed they were under the purview of the OMB. Schatz responded that Rubio had moved all foreign aid under the State Department and had wrestled some of that money away from the OMB to respond to an Ebola outbreak. “It also demonstrates you are perfectly capable of getting money released from those closeout funds if you wish. ” Schatz told the secretary. “Ebola is an urgent priority, but so is malaria, so is TB and so is HIV/AIDS.”.

“Proposing a rescission is a Presidential authority, and we will follow President Trump’s direction as to any future rescissions,” a State Department spokesperson told ProPublica. “We are currently planning to obligate all appropriated balances, consistent with law.”

USAID foreign aid Trump administration Congress OMB Russell Vought global health PEPFAR humanitarian aid Lindsey Graham Brian Schatz Marco Rubio Jeremy Lewin