Resize humanitarian aid back to short-term emergency relief
What the document says“The next Administration should resize and repurpose USAID’s humanitarian aid portfolio to restore its original purpose of providing emergency short-term relief”
The chapter records that the agency merged food and non-food emergency relief into a single humanitarian bureau in 2020 and says that reform was not sufficient. It asks that the portfolio be resized to short-term relief, prepare vulnerable communities for transition, and do no harm.
What the document actually says“The next Administration should resize and repurpose USAID’s humanitarian aid portfolio to restore its original purpose of providing emergency short-term relief”
Make this aid smaller again. It should be for short emergencies only.
Some aid is for sudden disasters. The book says it now runs on for years. It says it should go back to short-term help.
To rescind certain budget authority proposed to be rescinded in special messages transmitted to the Congress by the President on June 3, 2025, in accordance with section 1012(a) of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974
2025-07-24 · 139 Stat. 467
The Rescissions Act of 2025 cuts the portfolio the proposal is about: $800,000,000 from Migration and Refugee Assistance, $496,000,000 from International Disaster Assistance and $43,000,000 from the Complex Crises Fund, with food aid programs held out of the disaster assistance cut. It makes the portfolio smaller, but not in the way the chapter asks. The accounts it cuts are the emergency relief side of the portfolio rather than the longer term work the chapter would move away from, nothing in the Act repurposes the portfolio toward short term relief or addresses the 2020 merger of food and non-food emergency relief into a single bureau, and these are rescissions enacted by Congress rather than a resizing carried out by the agency.
The 2025 law cuts the aid money the proposal is about. It takes back $800 million for refugees, $496 million for disaster aid, and $43 million from a crisis fund. Food aid was left out of the cut. But the cuts hit short term relief, which the chapter wanted kept, and Congress made them.