International

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

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by Laura Kelly - 05/10/26 6:00 AM ET

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by Laura Kelly - 05/10/26 6:00 AM ET

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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.

The notification acknowledges that the price of closing out the agency is likely to cost less than the multibillion-dollar number, but it’s unclear where the leftover funds will go.

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

“If I was an appropriator, I’d be alarmed that the administration is withholding life-saving aid,” said Sam Vigersky, international affairs fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations. “Between the war with Iran and global funding cuts from the U.S. and others, needs are near record highs. We’re in a moment where every dollar matters.”

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.

On April 20, a notification was sent to Congress from USAID detailing that it planned to use remaining funds to cover costs associated with the closeout of terminated foreign assistance awards. The notification was first reported by Devex.

“Unobligated and/or unliquidated funds that remain after USAID has completed all closeout actions may be used for other foreign assistance programs, such as those currently managed by the Department of State,” the notification reads.

The “resources available” for closeout funding, the notification said, includes more than $625 million of unobligated funds from 2024 and $3.2 billion in unobligated funds related to global health and economic development programs from 2025. The notification also tallied more than $15 billion in “unliquidated obligations on terminated awards for DOAGs.”

DOAGs refer to development objective agreements, typically five-year grant agreements between the U.S. and a foreign country.

Closeout costs are listed as “covering final settlements, pending invoices, adjustments to negotiated indirect cost rate agreements, costs associated with disposition of assets and/or other claims.”

The notification notes that the expected closeout costs are “anticipated to be substantially less than these total amounts.”

One former USAID official, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, noted the remaining funds were almost half of the State Department’s entire $50 billion foreign assistance budget this year. In 2024, the last year of total data for USAID, the budget was around $35 billion.

“The trend that this speaks to and that Congress should be very concerned about, is that the Trump administration is not spending the money they are appropriating for them,” they said.

The notification does not include any names of administration officials. Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought — whom President Trump has dubbed the “grim reaper” — was assigned as acting USAID administrator last year and charged with overseeing the agency’s complete shutdown. Reuters reported in February that the White House was using $15 million of USAID funds for Vought’s security.

Senate Democrats took specific exception with the notification holding back $3.2 billion in development and humanitarian assistance that was appropriated in fiscal 2025. They called it an “unnecessary and illegal impoundment of funds.”

“We write to demand that you reverse this proposal and put the funds to their intended use to save lives and advance U.S. interests as directed by Congress last year,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and 16 of his colleagues wrote in a letter sent April 24.

They note that the $3.2 billion was signed into law by Trump in March 2025 and expires at the end of this September.

The assistance is earmarked for $300 million for programs to combat HIV/AIDS, $250 million for malaria programs, $320 million for maternal and child health programs, and $650 for global health security.

“The Administration should immediately begin using these foreign assistance funds to deliver results for the American people. There is no reason for this FY25 funding to b