Amidst all of the (justified) outrage around an unelected oligarch’s seizure of the federal government and purging of its institutional knowledge (read: highly skilled career employees), one critical affected group has been overlooked: Children.
First Focus on Children’s crack economist Chris Becker has found that cuts to USAID will cost children more than $4 billion, putting the lives of tens of thousands of them in immediate danger. In the long run, this number likely will grow into the millions.
At least $4.005 billion in USAID programing goes to children internationally each year, according to an analysis by First Focus on Children of Funding Tables in FY 2024 appropriations bills as well as Congressional Justifications issued by the State Department (see below for full methodology).
These cuts to children’s programs include:
- $860.1 million for Maternal and Child Health
- $665.7 million in the Economic Support Fund which includes basic education and clean water & sanitation which protects children from infectious disease
- $664.4 million in Development Assistance
- $496.6 million for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)
- $361.7 million for fighting Malaria
- $220.3 million for Global Health Security
- $119.7 million for Nutrition
- $115.7 million for International Disaster Assistance
- $90.5 million for fighting Tuberculosis
- $36.0 million for fighting Neglected Tropical Diseases
- $31.5 million for Vulnerable Children
U.S. poverty-focused development and humanitarian assistance costs less than 1% of the federal budget but has an out-sized impact for good in the world. It provides poor children and children with disabilities with clean water, nutrition, vaccines against common childhood killers, protection from sex trafficking and other lifesaving interventions. Foreign aid makes the world a more stable and secure place for all, including Americans. It boosts goodwill for our country, promotes international trade, and reduces the need for U.S. military boots on the ground.
The United States already underinvests in children, especially children overseas. Spending on children internationally totals approximately 1/100th of domestic spending on kids. Spending on international children’s programs accounted for a mere 0.09% of the total federal budget and only 10.16% of spending internationally in FY 2024.
Billionaire Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, is spearheading the destruction of USAID as President Trump’s “special government employee,” a status that puts him and his actions beyond scrutiny. In this role, Musk has seized sensitive information requiring top-level security clearance and fired thousands of employees, throwing the global development and humanitarian sector into chaos. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has granted limited waivers for “lifesaving” humanitarian and development initiatives, but it remains unclear what these waivers cover and what they do not. Further, funding for these waivered programs has ground to a halt and there are no employees left to implement them.
Methodology: Estimates of total spending for each program listed are sourced from Funding Tables in FY 2024 appropriations bills as well as Congressional Justifications issued by the State Department. For each program, First Focus on Children’s budget team estimates the share of spending that goes to children based on analysis of program and account descriptions that detail the allocation of funds and purpose of each program. For each program in this analysis, we list only the amount of spending that would go specifically to children based on these estimates of spending shares. We include only programs that are administered by USAID rather than the State Department as a whole with the exception of The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) which is jointly administered by USAID, State and CDC. For more details, please see the Children’s Budget 2024.