The Trump administration has targeted USAID before moving on to other controversial cuts. This time may be no different.

Last Tuesday, President Trump asked Congress to rescind $8.3 billion in foreign aid that lawmakers had already approved in 2024 and 2025 budgets.

I reported on what this means, especially for HIV prevention and treatment, for NPR on Friday:

It’s part of an ask, known as a rescission request, that would eliminate a total of $9.4 billion in funding for foreign aid and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS.

The move would codify cuts already made by the U.S Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which dismantled USAID and absorbed it into the U.S. State Department in the first months of Trump’s term and dramatically reduced PEPFAR’s reach.

–He led George W. Bush’s PEPFAR program to stop AIDS. Now he fears for its future, NPR

I’ve written a good bit about the ways the Trump administration has targeted USAID.

Before any other cuts to health and science agencies were announced, USAID was in the administration’s crosshairs first.

The agency has functioned as a test balloon, or a case study, in how to dismantle U.S. agencies and dramatically reshape health and science in America.

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That means this rescission request has vast implications not just for foreign aid but for all of the sweeping cuts the administration has made and will make.

From my story:

Congress now has 45 days to respond to Trump’s memo.

The move comes after a March ruling by U.S. District Judge Amir Ali that the Trump administration acted “unlawfully” by halting foreign aid without Congress’s approval.

The rescission request “put the ball squarely in Congress’s court,” says Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, an HIV prevention organization that led the lawsuit.

“Congress, at least to date, has moved not at all. The question really is, will they act?” Warren asks.

I will be watching this extremely closely. Will Congress defend the power of the purse — perhaps its essential function — or will it cede power to the president?

If this rescission request is granted, experts expect a flood of other Trump requests to make cuts permanent — and it could set the precedent for the president doing what he wants now, even when it’s unlawful, and asking for permission from Congress later.

Got tips or ideas for what I should cover next? Get in touch via email (melodyaschreiber@gmail.com) or Signal (melodyschreiber.06).

Top image: A man at a protest holding a sign that reads, “Foreign aid makes America SAFER.”