USAID has $19B to close out agency. Critics push to use funds to save lives

Source: The Hill

The shuttered U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has told Congress it has $19 billion in funds to cover costs associated with closing out the programs it terminated last year, according to a notification sent late last month and obtained by The Hill.

Humanitarian aid experts and Democrats are urging the administration to show some urgency in disbursing it for dire humanitarian needs.

USAID was fed “into the woodchipper,” as described by tech billionaire Elon Musk in February 2025. Musk, leading his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), took on the task of shutting down USAID. It locked out staff members and took over the computer systems, terminating the majority of programs in the agency’s roughly $40 billion annual budget.


Researchers estimated that more than 500,000 children and more than 260,000 adults died as a result of the aid cuts.

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/international/5870587-usaid-funds-19b-closeout/