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Imperiling Lives Worldwide, White House Asks Congress to Claw Back Global Health Funding
"These cuts would condemn countless vulnerable women, children, and families to preventable suffering and death," warned one humanitarian aid alliance.
Jun 04, 2025
The Trump White House on Tuesday formally asked Congress to rescind over $9 billion in approved spending, taking aim at lifesaving foreign aid programs as well as funding for U.S. public broadcasting outlets targeted by the president.
The $9.4 billion rescission request, expected to be the first of several, is laid out in a memo authored by Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, who wrote that the clawback "would eliminate programs that are antithetical to American interests, such as funding the World Health Organization, LGBTQI+ activities, 'equity' programs, radical Green New Deal-type policies, and color revolutions in hostile places around the world."
The White House request specifically urges Congress to rescind hundreds of millions of dollars from U.S. contributions to United Nations peacekeeping; $500 million from U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) global health programs that fund "activities related to child and maternal health, HIV/AIDS, and infectious diseases"; $800 million from Migration and Refugee Assistance; and $125 million from the Clean Technology Fund.
The request would also eliminate U.S. contributions to the U.N. Children's Fund.
If enacted, the rescissions would compound the damage already done by the Trump administration's lawless assault on USAID, an attack that has had devastating impacts around the world.
Abby Maxman, president and CEO of Oxfam America, said Tuesday that "this attempt to claw back billions of dollars of federal funding already approved by Congress, including lifesaving foreign aid, is yet another deadly setback for communities now left without food, clean water, healthcare, and more."
"The global aid system is already overstretched as need continues to rise," said Maxman. "We are already seeing the life and death impacts of foreign assistance cuts—championed by a handful of the world’s richest people—on women, children, and communities already enduring poverty, hunger, conflict, and disaster."
"We call on Congress to vote 'no' on this reckless rescissions package and uphold longstanding bipartisan commitment to these programs that save untold lives and make the world a better place for us all," Maxman added.
The humanitarian alliance InterAction warned that "these cuts would condemn countless vulnerable women, children, and families to preventable suffering and death—and already have."
"The closing of clinics in South Sudan caused at least five children with cholera to die while trying to access treatment," the alliance said. "In the Democratic Republic of Congo, entire communities were cut off from water, food, and healthcare. Stories like these continue to emerge from across the globe."
"Trump's cuts will save no more than a rounding error, but cost America its credibility, and hundreds of thousands of people their very lives."
The White House package also demands that Congress rescind all $535 million appropriated for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which would cement President Donald Trump's broadside against NPR and PBS. Both outlets are suing the president over his attempt to cut off their federal funding.
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the new request "is just the beginning," warning that "next time, it might be funding for cancer research or to help working families afford their energy bills this summer."
"After linking arms with Elon Musk to take a chainsaw to key programs the American people count on, President Trump is now asking Republicans in Congress to rubberstamp his DOGE cuts and codify them into law," said Murray. "In asking Congress to rescind some of the funding he has been illegally blocking for months, Trump is conceding what we've known all along: that Congress—not the president—must approve the rescission or withholding of investments that were signed into law."
Because the rescission process is not subject to the 60-vote Senate filibuster, congressional Republicans can approve the White House's demands without any Democratic support. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) pledged to "bring the package to the floor as quickly as possible."
Peter Maybarduk, Access to Medicines director at Public Citizen, said in a statement Tuesday that the White House proposal marks "a low moment for our country."
"This president, having unconstitutionally obliterated foreign aid, is now asking members of Congress to bless the power he illegally took from them and the destruction he has wrought with it," said Maybarduk. "Trump's cuts will save no more than a rounding error, but cost America its credibility, and hundreds of thousands of people their very lives."
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Civil Society Groups Call for Diplomatic Convoy to Get Aid Into Gaza as 2 Million Face Starvation
"The risk of famine in Gaza is increasing with the deliberate withholding of humanitarian aid," said the head of the World Health Organization.
May 19, 2025
As Israeli leaders were split over a plan to allow a "minimal" amount of aid into Gaza on Monday, Palestinian and global civil society groups issued a call for an international humanitarian mission that would go much further in fighting the looming famine across the enclave.
With the World Food Program and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East having "exhausted their reserves," more than 750 international groups joined "Unified Call to Confront Famine" and ensure the blockade stopping more than 3,000 food aid trucks and 116,000 metric tons of food are allowed into the enclave.
"We are witnessing, in real time, the deliberate starvation of a civilian population as a method of warfare," said Human Rights Watch (HRW), which also joined the call, in a statement. "Over 2 million Palestinians in Gaza are living in famine."
The group echoed an address by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), at the World Health Assembly on Monday in Geneva.
"The risk of famine in Gaza is increasing with the deliberate withholding of humanitarian aid," said Tedros. "The WHO has said around a quarter of the 2.1 million population in Gaza are facing 'a catastrophic situation of hunger, acute malnutrition, starvation, illness, and death' due to the Israeli blockade."
With aid that is "ready and waiting to enter Gaza" entirely blockaded by Israel since March 2, just before the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) broke a temporary cease-fire, civil society groups said states should join a "Diplomatic Humanitarian Convoy to Gaza through the Rafah Crossing."
In the convoy, official diplomatic missions would accompany thousands of aid trucks into Gaza, coordinating with the United Nations and the government of Egypt.
"Inaction will lead to mass death by starvation, enable further grave illegalities, and undermine the international legal system."
Supporting groups noted that governments that are "complicit in the ongoing atrocities," such as the U.S., the top international IDF funder, and called on "individual diplomats, parliamentarians, and ministers from those countries to join the convoy in their personal capacities." They also called on international media outlets to join—"to bear witness, to document the famine, and to expose the blockade starving Gaza."
"This is a human imperative," said HRW. "A Diplomatic Humanitarian Convoy would mark a historic step to break the siege, end the starvation, and affirm the world's rejection of hunger as a weapon of war."
The call came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the government's "greatest friends in the world" had made clear that they "cannot accept images of hunger, mass hunger."
Images of Palestinians in Gaza suffering from a lack of food, medicine, water, and other aid have been widely available since long before the current blockade, but Netanyahu's comments suggested that allies like the U.S. government have applied pressure to allow aid into the enclave.
On his trip to the Middle East last week, U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. would have the looming famine in Gaza "taken care of."
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a United Nations-backed food insecurity initiative, said last week that at least 244,000 people in Gaza are facing Phase 5-level hunger, defined as "extreme deprivation of food."
"Starvation, death, destitution, and extremely critical levels of acute malnutrition are or will likely be evident," said the IPC.
The entire enclave is in Phase 4, which is characterized by "large food consumption gaps... very high acute malnutrition and excess mortality."
Aid and medical workers are struggling to treat thousands of children who have been diagnosed with acute malnutrition.
"We currently are lacking nutrition rehabilitation supplies and equipment, including pharmaceuticals," said Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the occupied Palestinian territories. "Because of the blockades, supplies are dwindling rapidly."
Nutritionist Rana Soboh toldThe Associated Press Monday that she treated a mother who had fainted while breastfeeding her newborn after having gone days without eating.
The next day Soboh met a mother of a malnourished 1-year-old boy who weighed just 11 pounds, having lived his entire life during Israel's bombardment of Gaza and the near-total blockade that began in October 2023 in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack.
"He hadn't grown any teeth," the AP reported. "He was too weak to cry. The mother was also malnourished, 'a skeleton, covered in skin.' When the mother asked for food, Soboh started crying uncontrollably."
A U.N. official said Monday that under Netanyahu's plan to provide "minimal" aid, 20 aid trucks carrying food was expected to enter Gaza; before Israel began its assault on Gaza, about 500 trucks entered the enclave per day.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has objected to the tiny amount of food that may soon enter Gaza, saying it will "fuel Hamas and give it oxygen."
Netanyahu said the plan would be a "bridge" to a new aid system in which a private foundation and U.S. security contractors would distribute humanitarian assistance. The U.N. has rejected the proposal, saying it is "at odds with the DNA of any principled humanitarian organization."
HRW said the call for all humanitarian aid to enter Gaza in diplomatic convoy was grounded in "international law, shared morality, the Genocide Convention, the International Court of Justice's provisional measures, [and] the U.N. Charter."
"Inaction," said the group, "will lead to mass death by starvation, enable further grave illegalities, and undermine the international legal system."
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Israel Bombs Gaza Hospitals, Killing and Wounding Dozens of Palestinians
"Attacks on hospitals must stop," said the head of the World Health Organization. "The aid blockade must end to allow immediate entry of food, medicines, and equipment."
May 13, 2025
U.S.-backed Israeli forces bombed two hospitals in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, killing and wounding at least dozens of Palestinians including patients, forcibly displaced people, medical staff, rescue workers, and a well-known journalist.
Early Tuesday, Israel bombed the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, killing at least two people including photojournalist Hasan Eslaih, who was receiving treatment after surviving a previous Israeli attempt to assassinate him last month.
Gaza officials said Eslaih, who was the director of the Alam24 News Agency, is at least the 215th media worker killed by Israel since October 2023. Eslaih lost a finger and was badly injured in an April 7 Israeli strike on a tent outside the same hospital in which numerous people were burned alive. More than a dozen patients were reportedly injured in Tuesday's attack.
"The burn unit was struck, 18 hospital beds in the surgical department, eight beds in the intensive care unit, and 10 inpatient beds were destroyed," World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said after the attack. "This is huge blow to the already overwhelmed health system."
"We repeat our call: Attacks on hospitals must stop," Tedros added. "The aid blockade must end to allow immediate entry of food, medicines, and equipment to support patients and the rehabilitation of hospitals. The best medicine is peace."
Investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill said following the attack that "the U.S. is facilitating these war crimes and most Western journalists remain totally silent."
Later on Tuesday, Israel bombed a courtyard and surrounding areas of the European Hospital, also in Khan Younis, killing at least 28 people and injuring scores more. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) acknowledged the attack, claiming it targeted "Hamas operatives who were inside a command and control complex built within an infrastructure under the hospital."
British surgeon Tom Potokar was inside European Hospital when it was bombed. He said that "this is where kids with cancer are waiting to be evacuated and supposed to be 'deconflicted."
According to the Gaza Government Media Office, 38 hospitals, 81 health centers, and 164 medical facilities have been destroyed, damaged, or rendered inoperable since Israel launched its assault on the coastal enclave after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs condemned the strikes,
saying on social media that "these attacks are unacceptable and must end. Healthcare is not a target."
Attacks on medical facilities are war crimes under the 1949 Geneva Conventions.
The Gaza Health Ministry decried "the repeated targeting of hospitals and the pursuit and killing of wounded patients inside treatment rooms," adding that such attacks confirm "Israel's deliberate intent to inflict greater damage to the healthcare system."
In the United States, the advocacy group Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said in a statement that fugitive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "bombs hospitals, slaughters Palestinian civilians, destroys homes, and seeks to starve and ethnically cleanse the population of Gaza, all in a brutal campaign to continue Israel's genocide and stay in office indefinitely."
CAIR added that U.S. President Donald Trump "must act to stop these crimes against humanity, which our nation has unfortunately enabled for decades, and finally allow the Palestinian people to live in peace and freedom."
IDF strikes have obliterated Gaza's medical infrastructure along with the rest of the densely populated strip. Last year, an independent United Nations commission found that "Israel has perpetrated a concerted policy to destroy Gaza's healthcare system as part of a broader assault on Gaza, committing war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination with relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities."
The commission's report detailed hundreds of IDF attacks on Gaza healthcare facilities and the killing or wounding of around 1,700 medical workers, calling such killings "widespread and systematic."
Israel's 585-day onslaught and siege—which officials say has left more than 186,000 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing and millions more forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened—is the subject of an ongoing genocide case brought before the International Court of Justice in The Hague by South Africa.
Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted by the International Criminal Court, also in The Hague, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including extermination and starvation as a weapon of war.
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