U.S. Agency for International Development USAID

After Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act, signed on September 4, 1961, President John F. Kennedy created the U.S. Agency for International Development by executive order on November 3, 1961, consolidating several aid programs into one agency to promote development abroad and counter Soviet influence. The Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998 made it a statutory independent agency, led by an Administrator who reported to the Secretary of State.

For decades USAID was the largest bilateral aid agency in the world, managing tens of billions of dollars a year, a little over one percent of the federal budget, through missions in roughly 100 countries. It ran disaster and famine relief, food aid, global health programs such as those against HIV, malaria, and polio, child and maternal health, family planning, agriculture, clean water, democracy and governance programs, and economic growth projects, much of it carried out by nonprofit and contractor partners. It also operated a famine early warning system relied on by governments and humanitarian groups.

On January 20, 2025, the President ordered a 90-day pause in foreign aid, and within weeks most USAID staff were placed on leave, its website went dark, and officials working with the government efficiency office took control of its systems. In March 2025 the Secretary of State announced that more than 80 percent of its programs had been canceled, and on July 1, 2025, the State Department assumed its remaining functions, while Congress rescinded billions of dollars in foreign aid funding. Lawsuits challenged whether a statutory agency could be dismantled without Congress, with mixed results in the courts. Supporters said the agency was wasteful and out of step with administration priorities, while critics, including former officials of both parties, said the cuts disrupted lifesaving programs and ceded influence to rivals such as China.