The Latest from D.C: Trump’s Aid freeze and rotting food

The foreign aid freeze has led to greater inefficiencies, with reports that food aid from America’s farmers is rotting in storage despite ongoing famines. Although waivers for lifesaving humanitarian aid were promised, including for medicine, millions are still without access to healthcare. Without the technical and public health expertise that the United States has provided around the world, managing and containing infectious diseases at scale becomes impossible.

Aid freeze

Foreign assistance is less than 1% of the federal budget—that’s nearly 50% less than we spent during the Reagan years. Despite claims that foreign assistance is a never-ending entitlement, there are demonstrable dividends to Americans. U.S. foreign aid has helped 5.5 million babies be born HIV-free, saved millions of children from severe malnutrition, eradicated smallpox, and lifted hundreds of millions of women out of poverty and inequality. While these programs save lives globally, they also have improved the lives of Americans. Farmers, businesses, and entrepreneurs have increased their incomes, and foreign aid has driven demand for U.S.-made goods and services, supporting small businesses, creating jobs, and strengthening both local economies and global stability.

Reproductive health care

As it relates to sexual and reproductive health care, access has been dismantled.  The elimination of U.S. support for family planning and contraceptive access has specifically been targeted by the Trump administration and flagged as being non-lifesaving in recent U.S. government guidance. The consensus of public health and medical communities is that family planning is indeed life-saving and essential to the progress and prosperity of people.

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