On the first day in office, the 2025 US Administration issued a sweeping foreign aid freeze that halted life-saving global health and HIV programs, severed active grants, research underway and cost millions of people their lives and livelihoods.
In less than a month, on February 10, 2025, AVAC responded suing the President, the State Department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The Global Health Council also led a similar lawsuit challenging the freeze as unlawful and harmful. Together, the two cases argued for months in various courts that the foreign aid freeze not only jeopardized health as a human right but also bypassed congressional authority and undermined trust in US leadership.
Ultimately, the cases unlocked millions of dollars of development assistance for work done in January and February 2025, but millions more dollars expired at the end of the fiscal year in September 2025. AVAC’s case remains active in 2026, but lawsuits will never bring back everything that was taken away.
“It takes time to build up these programs and relationships … it will take more time to re-build, no matter who funds these efforts.” – AVAC’s Mitchell Warren
Read More About the Case – make these images into colored boxes with logos
Key Dates
- January 20: US Presidential administration issues Executive Order “pausing” foreign aid for 90-day review.
- February 10: AVAC, Journalism Development Network, and Public Citizen file suit against funding freeze; read about it in our press release, New York Times, Devex, and Politico.
- February 11: Global Health Council and other plaintiffs file suit against administration challenging funding freeze.