Americans understand that outbreaks of infectious diseases don’t stop at the border. By supporting global health programs like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, we prevent the spread of diseases to the United States while saving lives. The President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) alone has saved over 26 million people since its creation in 2003. However, President Trump’s haphazard foreign aid freeze and withdrawal from the World Health Organization leave us exposed to worldwide health threats and unable to shape global responses to infectious disease.
Call on Congress to restore U.S. leadership on international efforts to address pandemics and support a long-term reauthorization of PEPFAR and full replenishment of the Global Fund.
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In late January 2026, the United States unilaterally withdrew from the World Health Organization, one year after President Trump first signed an executive order previewing the withdrawal. Notably, the United States has not paid its outstanding fees from 2024 and 2025—a legal requirement for the withdrawal that the Trump administration will seemingly disregard. This unprecedented action will worsen the budgetary crisis at the WHO and significantly hinder global efforts to collaboratively detect, prevent, and respond to health challenges.
Previously, in September 2025, the State Department released the “America First Global Health Strategy.” Under this framework, the United States will severely reduce funding for health systems and infrastructure and instead concentrate spending on frontline workers and medications. At the same time, the United States will prioritize bilateral agreements that shift ownership and management of aid delivery to national partners rather than international aid groups, multilateral organizations, and NGOs. In most cases, these countries do not yet have the people or systems necessary to effectively deliver frontline aid—a challenge that will be exacerbated by the sudden reduction in infrastructure funding and lack of development assistance.
The launch of this new global health strategy came just weeks after President Trump signed into law the rescission of $500 million in previously allocated funding for global health programs. The initial package proposed by the Trump administration included an additional $400 million in cuts to PEPFAR, but the Senate preserved that funding along with protections for malaria, tuberculosis, nutrition, and maternal and child health programs. The final package included significant cuts to family planning and reproductive health and eliminated all U.S. voluntary contributions to the WHO.
President Trump’s FY26 budget request proposed major cuts to global health programming, including a $1.8 billion cut to PEPFAR; a $371 million (47%) cut to the President’s Malaria Initiative; total elimination of funding for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; and additional conditions for contributions for the Global Fund.
