Trump’s freeze on USAID funding “Morally bankrupt”

For Immediate Release

March 18, 2025

Contact: Rachel Freed, UUSC rfreed@uusc.org

Humanitarian organizations file new amicus brief; Highlight devastating impact of freeze of humanitarian aid worldwide 

Millions of communities facing conflict, famine, and displacement impacted

NEW YORK, NY — On Monday, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC),  ActionAid USA, and RESULTS filed an amicus brief with the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in the litigation brought by Democracy Forward and Public Citizen on behalf of Oxfam America and two labor unions to block the Trump administration from shutting down the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Click here to read the full amicus brief.

The suspension of USAID funding has already had a devastating impact on development and humanitarian aid across the globe, including on the work of UUSC, ActionAid, and RESULTS and its partners in countries around the world. Across the globe, international, national, and local organizations rely on USAID funding to deliver mission-critical services to the most vulnerable people and communities. In 2023, USAID-supported programs saved hundreds of thousands of newborns, started over 100,000 people on life-saving treatment for antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis, provided nutrition to tens of millions of malnourished and starving children, gave millions of women access to safe facilities for childbirth, and ensured that tens of millions of children had access to quality basic education.

“UUSC is part of a global ecosystem of humanitarian aid that ensures that those experiencing crisis, whether conflict, violence, displacement, or famine, have access to health services, protection, shelter, and other basic human rights. Whether direct or indirect recipients of USAID funding, the clear and dire message from UUSC’s partner organizations is that the freeze in USAID funding has already had significant impacts on the entire ecosystem of humanitarian aid in many countries, including Thailand, Bangladesh, Ukraine, Poland, Sudan, Honduras, and Haiti. From entities receiving USAID funding to frontline delivery organizations doing work in-country, the ability to deliver humanitarian aid across the globe has been impacted. With acute needs in areas experiencing conflict, famine, and displacement, disruption to any link in the chain of the delivery of critical humanitarian aid is catastrophic,” said Mary Katherine Morn, Executive Director of UUSC.

UUSC’s partner organizations include direct recipients of USAID funding, as well as entities that receive USAID funding through an intermediary. These partner organizations provide a range of humanitarian aid, health services, and community development. Most of the population UUSC serves live in conflict-affected areas that cannot be accessed by traditional government support. UUSC supports community-based organizations and civil society groups, which are critical to the survival of millions of people on the ground. The sudden withdrawal of USAID funding has left UUSC’s partner organizations scrambling to secure alternative funding resources to provide essential services to the communities they serve, and unable to plan for long-term sustainability.  UUSC’s partner organizations have in some cases had to halt or entirely shut down critical projects, curtail operations, and layoff staff members. In the wake of the Executive Order, UUSC’s capacity and financial resources are being stretched to respond to the dire needs of communities facing lost humanitarian aid in multiple countries around the world, and the programs UUSC supports to serve vulnerable communities may end.

ActionAid is also witnessing the devastating impact of the cuts to gender equality, community development and health services. “These cuts are morally bankrupt — made without regard for the devastating consequences they will cause. For many vulnerable communities, they are a literal death sentence.A vital program protecting women from sexual exploitation has been forced to close. Healthcare programs are shutting down, leaving people without essential medicines and services. Anti-corruption initiatives are being dismantled. The administration is undermining the authority of Congress by stopping funds that have already been appropriated and tearing apart an agency tasked with delivering those funds. This must stop.  The cuts are not just numbers on a budget sheet — they are decisions that cost lives,” said Niranjali Amerasinghe, Executive Director, ActionAid USA.

As an advocacy organization, RESULTS has worked with Congress and successive administrations to increase the U.S. government’s impact on global poverty. For decades, there has been bipartisan support for the U.S. commitment to health and poverty programs globally, with Congress setting direction for much of USAID’s most effective work. “The impacts of the administration’s actions have already been catastrophic around the world, and are growing by the day,” said Dr. Joanne Carter, Executive Director of RESULTS. “For years, RESULTS and its dedicated network of volunteers have worked with Congress in a bipartisan way to support, strengthen and reform USAID, because we know the agency can have even greater impact. But instead of reform, the administration has simply taken a bludgeon to programs that save millions of lives. This is a contradiction of the bipartisan will of Congress, and a staggering and needless cruelty.”

The sudden withdrawal of USAID funding has left local and national organizations scrambling to provide essential services to such communities, and unable to plan for long-term sustainability. In addition to endangering millions of people across the globe, the funding freeze and subsequent termination of contracts are destroying the organizational backbone of aid programs. As a result, critical and life-saving programs are shutting down with no alternatives for people living in marginalization and poverty. This travesty must end. 

Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC)
The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) is a nonprofit organization which works to advance human rights and social justice throughout the world, through its work with over 80 international grassroots partners in over 25 countries including Burma (Myanmar), Bangladesh, Haiti, Sudan, Ukraine and Thailand. UUSC’s predecessor organization, the Unitarian Services Committee, was founded in 1940, in order to aid European refugees of World War II. Eighty years later, UUSC continues the work of advancing human rights around the world.

RESULTS and RESULTS Educational Fund
RESULTS supports a movement of passionate, committed everyday people using their voices to influence political decisions that will bring an end to poverty. Volunteers and staff multiply their impact through the enormous power of advocacy. This network of volunteers is backed by a staff of researchers, policy analysts, and legislative and media experts. RESULTS has affiliates and partners across five continents, and a network of volunteers in all 50 states. It is a non-partisan advocacy group comprised of RESULTS Educational Fund, a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization, and RESULTS, a nonprofit 501(c)4 grassroots lobbying organization.

ActionAid USA
ActionAid USA is the US branch of ActionAid, a global federation working with more than 41 million people living in more than 71 countries. We want to see a just, fair, and sustainable world, in which everybody enjoys the right to a life of dignity, and freedom from poverty and oppression. We work to achieve social justice and gender equality and to eradicate poverty.