Contact: media@avac.org
WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Public Citizen filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia against President Trump, the State Department, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Marco Rubio, Secretary State and Acting Administrator of USAID, and Russell Vought, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, on behalf of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC) and Journalism Development Network, Inc. (JDN), seeking emergency relief from the freeze on funding for foreign assistance.
By abruptly freezing foreign assistance funding, the administration has halted the life-saving work of organizations across the globe. The administration’s actions have also cost thousands of American jobs and counting.
“The Trump administration’s freeze on foreign assistance funding is dangerous and illegal,” said Public Citizen attorney Lauren Bateman, the lead lawyer on the case. “When programs like the ones run by our clients are abruptly shuttered, the impacts are felt throughout the world—with the most vulnerable people bearing the deadliest impact.”
AVAC is a New York-based non-profit founded in 1995 that works to help end the global HIV/AIDS epidemic by accelerating development and delivery of HIV prevention options. AVAC has been forced to abruptly stop CASPR, a coalition of African civil society organizations that supports research on HIV prevention and provides resources for local communities, including medical research trial participants, journalists, and policy makers. As a result, the rollout of emerging HIV preventative drugs across the African continent may be delayed, risking deadly consequences. AVAC has been forced by the illegal funding freeze to begin laying off members of its 46-person staff.
“This funding freeze and the draconian actions of this administration are harming global health and security. In the name of economic efficiency, they are destabilizing public health, diplomatic relationships, communities, and economies,” said Mitchell Warren, AVAC Executive Director. “AVAC and many of our African civil society CASPR partners will be irreparably harmed by this pause. It takes time to build up these programs and relationships, but it is taking days to destroy them—and it will take more time to re-build, no matter who funds these efforts. USAID has made America stronger, safer and more prosperous for decades. It’s no time to throw that away.”
The Journalism Development Network, Inc. (JDN) is a Maryland-based non-profit corporation that supports a global consortium of journalists from more than 70 non-profit investigative centers and regional news organizations across the world. JDN receives funding from USAID for its Strengthening Transparency and Accountability Through Investigative Reporting (STAIR) program to support collaborative investigative journalism networks in Europe and Eurasia.
The USAID funding freeze has shut down JDN’s operations in a number of countries, slashed nearly a third of its budget, forced it to lay off 20% of its staff and reduced salaries and work time for most of the remaining employees. If funding is not restored, JDN will have to permanently close some programs, including operations in countries in Asia, the Pacific, Latin America and Europe.
“This illegal action by the government deprives small investigative media in low-income countries around the world of the funds they badly need to operate. These centers are critical to holding power to account in some of the toughest places in the world to report. Many are ex-pat journalists who could be deported back home where they risk arrest and torture.” said a JDN spokesperson.
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About AVAC
AVAC is an international non-profit organization that provides an independent voice and leverages global partnerships to accelerate ethical development and equitable delivery of effective HIV prevention options, as part of a comprehensive and integrated pathway to global health equity. Follow AVAC on Bluesky and Instagram. Find more at www.avac.org and www.prepwatch.org.