Senate Foreign Aid: $9B Rescissions, Court Fight, and PEPFAR

Senate foreign aid cuts in 2025 came in two forms that actually took effect: a $9 billion rescissions law signed in July that canceled previously approved spending on development assistance and public broadcasting, and a Supreme Court order in September that let the Trump administration withhold roughly $4 billion more in appropriated foreign aid. A larger fight, over an administration budget request that would cut international affairs spending by nearly half, is still before Congress.

The $9 Billion Rescissions Law

On June 3, 2025, President Trump sent Congress 22 rescission proposals under the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, asking lawmakers to cancel $9.4 billion in budget authority across foreign aid and public media accounts.¹ The statute lets the president temporarily hold the funds for up to 45 days while Congress considers the request; if Congress does nothing, the money must be released.²

Congress acted inside the window. The Senate approved an amended version of H.R. 4, the Rescission Act of 2025, shortly after 2 a.m. on July 17 by a vote of 51-48, with Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota not voting.³⁴ The House cleared the Senate’s version 216-213 on July 18, and the White House confirmed on July 24 that the president had signed it.⁵⁶

The final law canceled roughly $9 billion. About $7.9 billion came from foreign aid accounts, including a $2.5 billion cut to the Development Assistance account that funded basic education, water and sanitation, and food security programs. The remaining $1.1 billion came from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS affiliates.⁷

Senators made some changes during floor consideration. They stripped out a $400 million cut to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), barred rescissions from targeting agriculture and nutrition assistance, and preserved specific grants to Jordan and Egypt.⁴⁷ A separate amendment to strike a $496 million rescission for international disaster assistance failed 49-50.⁸

The Republicans Who Voted No

Two Republicans opposed the bill. Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the Office of Management and Budget’s text was “sparse” and failed to explain how the $2.5 billion in development assistance cuts would land on specific programs. She also said the House version’s PEPFAR cuts “went too far,” a concern that drove the Senate’s decision to exempt the program.⁴⁹

Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska focused on the public broadcasting cuts, saying public radio and television stations provide essential services in remote areas. She pointed to a 7.3-magnitude earthquake in Alaska and noted she had received emergency alerts through a public radio station.⁸

Other Republicans voted yes with reservations. Senator Thom Tillis warned from the floor that rescinding previously appropriated funds “betrayed a prior agreement” and would make Democratic votes harder to secure on future spending bills.⁹ Senator Mike Rounds voted for the bill only after negotiating a side deal with the administration for $9.4 million from the Department of the Interior to support tribal radio stations across 11 states that stood to lose most of their funding when CPB grants ended.¹⁰ Later reporting raised questions about whether that one-year deal could replace the broader systemwide support those stations had received from CPB.¹¹

Unified Democratic Opposition

Every Senate Democrat voted against the rescissions bill. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called it a “purely partisan scheme” and “an affront to the bipartisan appropriations process,” arguing that clawing back congressionally approved funds would undermine future cross-party cooperation on spending.¹²

The Court Fight Over Another $4 Billion

Separate from the rescissions bill, the administration had been withholding foreign aid under its own authority since January 2025, when Secretary of State Marco Rubio froze all State Department and USAID foreign assistance for a policy review.¹³ USAID issued stop-work orders, OMB paused foreign-aid financial assistance, and the administration moved to fold USAID into the State Department.¹⁴

Global health organizations sued. U.S. District Judge Amir Ali ruled the freeze likely violated federal law and the Constitution, and he ordered the administration to commit to spending the allocated funds by the end of the fiscal year on September 30, 2025. The funds included nearly $4 billion for USAID global health activities available through September 2025 and more than $6 billion for HIV/AIDS programs allocated through September 2028.¹⁵

On August 13, 2025, a D.C. Circuit panel vacated the injunction 2-1. Writing for the majority, Judge Karen Henderson, joined by Judge Gregory Katsas, held that the plaintiffs lacked a legal cause of action because the Impoundment Control Act gives the Comptroller General, not private parties, authority to sue the executive over withheld funds. The majority also ruled that the Administrative Procedure Act could not provide an alternative path to review.¹⁴ Judge Florence Pan dissented, warning that the majority created a “new constitutional rule” that executive action exceeding statutory authority “can never be the basis of a constitutional cause of action.”¹⁶

On September 26, 2025, the Supreme Court sided with the administration in an unsigned order, staying Judge Ali’s injunction and allowing the withholding of roughly $4 billion in foreign aid. The Court said the administration had made a “sufficient showing” that the Impoundment Control Act barred the challengers’ claims. Justices Kagan, Sotomayor, and Jackson dissented. Justice Kagan wrote that the Court was acting in “uncharted territory” without appellate review or oral argument, and because the funds were set to expire at the end of the fiscal year, the practical effect of the stay was to permanently prevent the money from reaching its recipients.¹³¹⁷

The FY 2026 Budget Request

The administration’s fiscal year 2026 request proposed cutting total foreign operations funding from roughly $42.5 billion in FY 2025 to about $18.1 billion, a reduction of more than half. Overall international affairs spending would drop from an estimated $59.8 billion to $31.2 billion. The request also proposed canceling $20 billion from existing State Department and USAID accounts and eliminating several agencies entirely, including the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the U.S. Institute of Peace, the U.S. African Development Foundation, and the Inter-American Foundation.¹⁸

The centerpiece of the request was a new $2.9 billion America First Opportunity Fund, which the State Department said would let it “respond rapidly and flexibly to new and unforeseen opportunities and challenges.”¹⁹ The administration suggested the fund could cover United Nations contributions, international peacekeeping, security assistance, loan guarantees, global disease outbreaks, or “anything else the President deems necessary.” Senator Chris Van Hollen and Representative Lloyd Doggett, joined by five senators and 120 House members, wrote to Secretary Rubio demanding detail on how the fund would operate, including whether awards would be competitive, what criteria would apply, and how spending would be monitored.²⁰

Where PEPFAR Stands

The Senate stripped the $400 million PEPFAR cut from the rescissions bill, but the program’s larger status is unsettled. Its last short-term reauthorization expired on March 25, 2025, letting eight time-bound provisions lapse. PEPFAR continues to run on annual appropriations, funded at $6.5 billion for FY 2025 through continuing resolutions, with no nominated U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and a “limited waiver” restricting its work to “life-saving HIV services.”²¹

The House and Senate Appropriations Committees agreed on an FY 2026 global health package (H.R. 7006) that includes $4.5 billion for PEPFAR, part of $5.9 billion overall for HIV programming. The bill also directs the Secretary of State to submit, within 90 days of passage, a transition plan shifting PEPFAR toward greater country-led ownership. The House passed the bill on January 13, 2026.²²

Ukraine Aid on Its Own Track

Aid to Ukraine has moved separately from the rescissions and freeze fights. In February 2024, the Senate passed the National Security Act, providing $95.5 billion in emergency spending: $60.1 billion in military aid for Ukraine, $14.1 billion for Israel, $9.6 billion in humanitarian aid covering Ukraine, Israel, and Gaza, and $1.4 billion for Ukrainian refugee assistance.²³

In July 2025, Senator Jeanne Shaheen introduced the Supporting Ukraine Act of 2025 (S. 2592), proposing $30 billion for the Department of Defense, including $15 billion for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, along with $3 billion in foreign military financing, $500 million in international disaster assistance, and $2 billion for NATO members on Ukraine’s borders. The bill would raise the president’s annual drawdown authority for Ukraine to $6 billion for fiscal years 2025 through 2027 and would require reestablishing Task Force KleptoCapture to enforce Russia sanctions. It was referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.²⁴

New Policy Strings on Aid Dollars

Senate Republicans have also moved to attach policy conditions to the aid that remains. On June 24, 2026, Senators Jim Risch and Ted Budd introduced the Promoting Human Flourishing in Foreign Assistance Act, which would codify a Trump executive policy barring U.S. foreign assistance from funding abortion, diversity and equity programs, and what the sponsors describe as “gender ideology.” The bill would expand existing restrictions beyond foreign NGOs to cover U.S. NGOs, international organizations, and foreign governments, and beyond global health assistance to most non-military foreign aid.²⁵ Humanitarian groups have said the policy could disrupt “billions in critical healthcare and humanitarian relief worldwide,” and a group of Democratic lawmakers has introduced counter-legislation.²⁶

Between the signed rescissions law, the Supreme Court’s stay, and a pending budget request that would halve international affairs spending, foreign aid in 2025 contracted on multiple fronts at once. The courts have narrowed the paths available to force appropriated money out the door, and the next round of decisions sits with Senate appropriators working through FY 2026.

1
Federal Register. Rescissions Proposals Pursuant to the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974
2
Lawfare. A Primer on the Impoundment Control Act
3
U.S. Senate. Roll Call Vote 411
4
Government Executive. Senate Clears Amended Bill to Claw Back Billions in Foreign Aid and Public Media Funding
5
NPR. Congress Sends Rescission Package to President Trump
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CBS News. Trump Signs Rescissions Package Cutting Foreign Aid and Public Media Funding
7
Roll Call. Senate Sends $9 Billion Rescissions Package to the House
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E&E News. Senate Passes Rescissions Bill Over Dem Resistance
9
NPR. Senate Passes Rescission Bill Cutting Funding for Foreign Aid, NPR, and PBS
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Senator Mike Rounds. Rounds Secures Tribal Radio Funding, Votes to Support Rescissions Package
11
Current. Why a Senator’s Side Deal to Protect Tribal Stations Might Not Be Enough
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CBS News. Senate Advances Rescissions Package Targeting Foreign Aid and Public Media
13
SCOTUSblog. Supreme Court Allows Trump Administration to Withhold Billions in Foreign Aid Funding
14
U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Global Health Council v. Trump, No. 25-5097
15
The New York Times. Appeals Court Rules Foreign Aid Groups Lack Standing to Challenge Trump Freeze
16
Courthouse News. D.C. Circuit Upholds Trump Freeze on Billions in Foreign Aid
17
Supreme Court of the United States. Department of State v. AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, No. 25A269
18
U.S. Department of State. FY 2026 Congressional Budget Justification
19
U.S. Department of State. FY 2026 Congressional Budget Justification (Updated)
20
Representative Lloyd Doggett. Doggett and Van Hollen Demand Answers on Flexible Foreign Aid Funds
21
KFF. The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)
22
George W. Bush Presidential Center. Global Health Update
23
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. What’s in the Senate-Passed National Security Supplemental
24
Congress.gov. S.2592 – Supporting Ukraine Act of 2025
25
Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Risch, Budd Lead Bill to Codify Trump Admin Policy Eliminating Foreign Aid Funding for Abortion, DEI, Gender Ideology
26
Public Radio East. Senators’ Bill Would Block Federal Foreign Aid From Funding Abortion, DEI Programs and Gender Ideology Abroad