Restore USAID Funding Now—Stop Starving the World

In February 2025, the U.S. government initiated sweeping cuts to USAID, triggering an immediate global humanitarian crisis as clinics closed, food aid stalled, and life-saving programs were abruptly shut down.

The rollback of USAID funding is not a routine budget dispute. It is a conscious political decision that is already costing human lives. Every day this funding remains frozen, more children go hungry, more mothers die in childbirth, and more preventable diseases spread unchecked.

USAID provides emergency food assistance, maternal health care, clean water, and treatment for diseases like HIV, tuberculosis, and cholera. When funding was abruptly cut, these systems collapsed overnight. In Kenya, Reuters reported that U.S. aid cuts disrupted life-saving treatment for severely malnourished children, leaving clinics without food or medicine. In Malawi, Al Jazeera documented pregnant women being turned away from care as health programs unraveled, increasing the risk of preventable maternal deaths.

The human toll is already staggering. ProPublica linked USAID cuts in South Sudan to deadly cholera outbreaks after water and sanitation programs were halted. A New Yorker investigation found that the shutdown of USAID operations has already been associated with hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide, driven by hunger, untreated illness, and the collapse of basic health services. These are not statistics. They are people who would be alive if aid had not been cut.

Members of Congress have demanded answers. In November, Representative Gregory Meeks requested an investigation into reports that food aid was wasted while people starved because programs were shut down without planning or accountability.

The United States is choosing cruelty. We are choosing to let suffering deepen, not because we lack resources, but because political leaders decided these lives did not matter.

Funding decisions are being negotiated now, ahead of looming budget deadlines. Every delay means more deaths that could have been prevented.

Restore USAID funding immediately. Reopen the programs. Save lives. History will remember who acted, and who stood by while the world paid the price.