A 90-day pause to US foreign assistance and subsequent changes to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have created chaos and jeopardized the health and safety of millions of people in the countries that receive US assistance. A State Department waiver allowed for continued provision of lifesaving humanitarian assistance, but confusion about guidance, absence of staff due to layoffs, and an inability to access payment systems have effectively kept most lifesaving care halted.
While these threats to lives and health abroad are of the most urgent concern, Americans are not exempt from the effects of the pause. While foreign assistance is delivered to other countries, much of it originates here in the US. Stop-work orders – and lingering questions about the stability of US aid after the 90 days – could have major financial impacts on American farmers, businesses, and universities.
(read full stories below map)
Alabama
Alabama’s International Fertilizer Development Center, in Muscle Shoals, could lose 30% to 40% of its funding base without USAID support, which could endanger global food security. A 2014 study found the 90-year old IFDC has a $21.5 million economic impact on the Shoals – every dollar that is spent brings $2.40 into the local economy. (The Florence Times Daily)
Arizona:
Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation was awarded a five year $25 million grant by USAID to support the country of Georgia to strengthen the quality of its K-12 education system. (Forbes)
California
In December 2024, University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, San Diego announced that they would be part of a $75 million USAID effort to improve the cost-effectiveness of global anti-poverty programs. (Stateline)
Colorado
Keith Ives, a Marine veteran, runs Causal Design – a small Denver-area nonprofit that brings a numbers-crunching relentlessness to test the effectiveness of USAID programs.
Their work has included weighing and measuring children in Ethiopia who are getting USAID support, testing whether they’re chunkier and taller than kids who aren’t. (On average they are.) Causal Design receives 70% of its funding from USAID – Ives has told full-time staff of 28 that they would be out of a job at the end of the month. (Associated Press)
Georgia
Mana, a Fitzgerald, Georgia-based nonprofit, manufactures a ready-to-use therapeutic food (RTUF) milk that feeds approximately 2 million children per year through programs by USAID, UNICEF, the World Food Programme, Samaritan’s Purse, World Vision and others. But Mana received a stop work order from USAID. The nonprofit’s $80 million budget for this year includes a variety of contracts for the RTUF but is largely subsidized by USAID. UPDATE: Following a CNN story that brought attention to the termination of Mana’s USAID contracts, the organization announced in March that its contracts had been reinstated. (Georgia Public Broadcasting | CNN)
Idaho
Casey Bartrem, executive director of Terragraphic International Foundation in Moscow, has been a USAID contractor since July 2023, supporting countries to address childhood lead poisoning, identifying it and developing monitoring systems and programs to reduce it all over the world, including Africa, Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. She received a stop-work order in February. (Idaho Statesman:)
Illinois
The University of Illinois’ Soybean Innovation Lab has laid off 30 people and will close on April 15th unless funding is turned back on. The lab is one of 17, all funded through USAID’s Feed the Future program, that have reported they will be impacted by the freeze. including university programs at Mississippi State, Michigan State, and the University of Missouri. (Some of the labs are petitioning their host universities to cover some costs, with mixed success.) The SIL has used USAID funding to not only bring modern soybean farming practices to Africa, but also process demand for U.S.-grown beans. (Brownfield Ag News | Reuters)
Indiana
Indiana University’s O’Neill School of International development was awarded the Partnership for Higher Education Reform grant in 2021 – a five year, $14.2 million project expected to end in 2026 that strengthens teaching, research, innovation, and governance within the three largest national universities in Vietnam. (Forbes)
Iowa
The Iowa Farmers Union says the state plays an important role in providing foreign food aid through USAID. Union president Aaron Lehman said USAID works with the Department of Agriculture and with farmers to provide Iowa corn, soybeans and other commodities to countries overseas. (KCCI)
A lab at Iowa State University will be impacted by farm research laboratory closures (see Illinois).
Kansas
Disruptions to US food aid systems, could adversely affect the Kansas agriculture industry, which has an overabundance of sorghum, also known as milo. Without USAID’s Food for Peace program, Kansas sorghum farmers may not have a market for the 2024 crop. Food for Peace – signed into law by a Kansan president – has fed 4 billion people in over 150 countries since its inception. At 57%, Kansas is the US’ top producer of sorghum. (Topeka Capital Journal | Washington Post)
Last November, Kansas State University announced that it had been chosen by USAID to oversee a grant of $50 million over five years to help make crops more resilient to climate change and extreme weather events in countries including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala and Honduras. The grant came with an opportunity for renewal for another five years and $50 million more. A 2022 study co-authored by Kansas State researcher Timothy Dalton concluded that USAID’s $1.24 billion investment in international agricultural research between 1978 and 2018 produced about $8.4 billion in economic benefits. About four-fifths of those benefits went to people making less than $5.50 a day, it found. (Stateline | Topeka Capital Journal)
After losing its federal funding following the Trump administration’s dismantling of the foreign aid agency, a business that helps students with disabilities is on the verge of bankruptcy and has furloughed its Kansas employees. Inclusive Development Partners is co-owned by Anne Hayes, of Overland Park, and has worked in 25 countries around the world to include learners with disabilities in education programs. But that work has now stopped with the shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development. (Topeka Capital Journal | See also New Hampshire)
Louisiana
Louisiana’s rice farmers, in particular, play a significant role in producing food for such aid programs as Food for Peace and McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) buys an estimated 3-5% of Louisiana’s rice supply each year for international food assistance programs, providing revenue for the state’s 800+ rice farmers. From ports in Houston and New Orleans, Louisiana-grown rice is shipped across the globe to places like Haiti, Iraq and Ukraine.(The Advocate | WVUE)
Maine
A Falmouth-based nonprofit announced Friday it was closing a long-running prenatal and newborn care program that served thousands in northern Haiti due to the Trump administration’s attempt to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development. Konbit Sante had to stop its maternal care work at a public hospital serving a poor neighborhood in Cap-Haitien, the country’s second-largest city, under orders from USAID, which provides it with $220,000 a year. The funding freeze forced the clinic to close, and its 32 employees were laid off. (Portland Press Herald | Washington Post )
MCD Global Health, in Hallowell, will halt its work to combat malaria in Mozambique, Uganda and Niger. MCD is the recipient of a five-year, $27 million USAID grant. If access to the funding is not restored, MCD would lose its 34 staff members in Mozambique and its 20 staffers split between Uganda and Niger. MCD itself would not shutter, as about 80% of its efforts to promote public health are based in Maine. (Portland Press Herald)
Maryland
USAID cuts may harm more than 100 Maryland groups. Some of the names are well known, such as Catholic Relief Services, the biggest recipient of funding from USAID, with hundreds of millions in grants a year. But more than 100 others in the state have received funds, including accountants, and cybersecurity experts as well as logistics and consulting firms. In Maryland, there are about 400 USAID foreign service officers who will be put on paid leave and 400 contractors returning to the state from overseas who will be fired, according to state Senate President Bill Ferguson (Baltimore Banner)
Hias, a Jewish group aiding refugees and potential refugees, is having to shut down “almost all” of its more than 120-year-old mission. The Maryland-based philanthropy, founded by Jews fleeing persecution in Eastern Europe, works to keep vulnerable people safe in their home country so they don’t have to flee. The pause on foreign assistance severed 60% of Hias’ funding overnight, prompting furloughs among the organizations 2,000 direct employees, operating in 17 states and 20 countries. (Associated Press)
Massachusetts
A Boston-based global public health firm has announced that it will be laying off nearly half of its staff – approximately 1,100 employees – as a result of the foreign assistance freeze. John Snow Inc. relies on USAID for 63% of its annual funding, and aims to address global health issues by “providing a broad range of services to the public and private health sectors to enable people to live to their full health potential.” (WFXT)
Video: A USAID contractor in Massachusetts lost her job due to the shutdown. She and her colleagues say they haven’t been paid since December. (Western Mass News)
A Somerville woman says she, and 70% of her department, were furloughed on Thursday amid cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development . The woman, who spoke anonymously, works in environment and sustainability among several USAID contracts. she explained. (CBS Boston)
Michigan
In November, Michigan State University announced it had received a five-year, $17 million USAID grant to improve STEM instruction in Malawi. (Stateline)
David Tschirley runs a USAID-funded lab at Michigan State University and is chair of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab Council. The lab network, Tschirley says, is made of of about 300 employees, with as many as 4,000 collaborators abroad. Michigan State is allowing Tschirley’s lab to keep employees based on the expectation USAID will eventually approve the costs. (Reuters | See also: Illinois)
Minnesota
U.S. farmers and agribusinesses, including Minnesota ventures from ag giants to processors of yellow split peas, could lose money after President Donald Trump’s administration abruptly closed USAID. Minnetonka-based Cargill, Inver Grove Heights-based CHS Inc. and Minneapolis trader Sinamco sold a total of $70 million in sorghum, wheat and peas to the USAID’s Food for Peace program. (Minnesota Star Tribune)
Mississippi
Mississippi State University announced that USAID would extend a five-year grant and provide up to an additional $15 million for the university’s efforts to help farmers and fishers in Africa and Asia better utilize aquatic food resources. (Stateline)
Mississippi State University will also be impacted by farm research lab closures (See Illinois).
Missouri
University of Missouri will be impacted by farm research lab closures. (Missouri Independent | See Illinois)
Montana
Anne Linn, a fifth-generation Montanan and former Peace Corps worker in Africa, dedicated six years to working with USAID to combat malaria. She was laid off as a result of changes to the agency. “The way this happened, just the immediate stop, was absolutely shocking,” she said. (KBZK)
Nebraska
A University of Nebraska-led effort to help small farmers in developing countries finds its federal funds on hold as a result of President Donald Trump’s review of USAID. The University of Nebraska’s Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute received a “stop-work” order for a five-year, $19 million grant, university officials said. (KETV)
Nevada
The University of Nevada: Reno says it received an order to stop work on three projects meant for developing global partnerships and scientific research because around $30 million in federal funding used in those initiatives is impacted by changes to the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Projects impacted include a conservation and research effort in the Mekong River Basin in Cambodia, a media and digital literacy exchange program to combat misinformation, and an initiative to improve weather forecasting, climate research and water resource management through high-altitude weather stations. (Las Vegas Sun)
New Hampshire
Inclusive Development Partners, which helps make sure children with disabilities can get the help they need, told WMUR that it gets virtually all of its funding from USAID. The organization is now trying to figure out if it can stay afloat. All 14 staff across the country have been furloughed (WMUR | See also: Kansas)
New Mexico
Santa Fe-based contractor Carol Tyroler was in Johannesburg, South Africa, gathering information about ways to transition coal plant workers into new jobs when her US-based project manager contacted her with the news: Stop-work orders had been put in place for USAID programs, and she would need to return home within 24 hours. Tyroler has been an international development contractor, working largely on USAID projects, for three decades – now, she and her colleagues are searching for new jobs amid significant uncertainty about the sector’s future. (Santa Fe New Mexican)
North Carolina
North Carolina is home to organizations that received more than $2.2 billion from USAID, according to Molloy Consultants. (Business Insider)
FHI 360, founded at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, furloughed staff because of “the pause of U.S. foreign assistance funding and programs,” the company’s release said. FHI 360 said its mission is to “mobilize research, resources and relationships so that people everywhere can access the opportunities they need to lead full, healthy lives.” (Spectrum)
According to the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, North Carolina farmers typically don’t grow enough of the products Food for Peace purchases to serve as suppliers for the program. However, Dr. Jeffrey Dorfman, the Hugh C. Kiger Distinguished Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at N.C. State University, said any decline in demand for agricultural products can cause the price of those products to fall, though other market forces are constantly in play. (News and Observer)
Nonprofit Research Triangle Institute (RTI) laid off 300 people in its International Development Group as a result of the stop-work orders. It also announced the cancellation of several USAID projects, with more changes expected. RTI employs nearly 6,000 people between its headquarters in Durham and other locations around the world. Forbes Magazine named it as one of America’s Dream Employers in 2025. (WTVD)
Among the top recipients of USAID dollars in North Carolina are the state’s universities. NC State received $2.2 million from USAID last fiscal year. UNC received far more, around $17.5 million. According to a UNC spokesperson, that money went towards a laundry list of programs, including tools to track the spread of tuberculosis, and “rigorous monitoring, evaluation, and research to ensure that USAID investments are effective and efficient,” among other things. UNC confirmed nine of those programs have now received stop work orders. (WRAL)
Ohio
It’s not just Ohio farmers who have benefited from the vital role USAID fills. Ohio State University College of Food Agricultural and Environmental Services has received grants from USAID for agricultural research. One notable grant was a $24 million award in 2011 for the “Tanzania Agricultural Research and Capacity Building Project.” This project aimed to improve agricultural productivity and food security in Tanzania by supporting research and capacity building efforts in the country. (Morning Ag Clips)
Ohio Farmers Union President Bryn Bird, who also co-owns Byrd’s Haven Farms in Licking County, said several large-scale farmers from the Buckeye State fulfill direct food orders through USAID humanitarian assistance programs Other major Ohio-based food businesses, like J.M. Smucker in Orrville, have completed humanitarian projects through USAID in recent years. The Better Coffee Harvest Project, launched in 2014, was a $3.9 million initiative that saw 11,000 coffee farmers trained in El Salvador and Nicaragua. (Dayton Daily News)
A Honduran orphanage founded by a Worthington, Ohio pastor, may have to return to providing hospice care, instead of treatment, for children with HIV/AIDS. Founded in 2001, Montana de Luz currently provides 15 children with a home and life-saving antiretroviral drugs. But with the change to USAID, the hospitals that provide the orphanage with those drugs won’t have funding, meaning they may soon become unavailable. Over the years, thousands of people from the Columbus area have visited the orphanage as part of school and religious group trips or have otherwise supported it. In fact, 11 Ohioans from Worthington Presbyterian Church were in Honduras when the USAID stop-work orders broke. (Columbus Dispatch)
Oklahoma
The Oklahoma Wheat Commission says Oklahoma farmers depend on selling their product at home and having it purchased to send abroad. “Our goal is to be able to create market development opportunities for the U.S. wheat producer and Oklahoma wheat producer, while also trying to help countries in their time of need,” said Mike Schulte, the executive director the commission. (KFOR)
Pennsylvania
David Hughes, director of the USAID Innovation Lab on Current and Emerging Threats to Crops at Penn State University, says disruption due to USAID changes “reduces our capacity to help farmers fight pests and diseases and help American farmers prevent incursions.” One study that has been halted was working to control a viral disease spread by an aphid that was hurting banana crops in Tanzania, Hughes said. Another: A program which is helping farmers grow more food, and controlling against an invasive caterpillar.
Hughes’ lab received a stop-work order in January, but is continuing to perform essential work with the understanding that they may not get funding from their $39 million contract with USAID. He said it will be up to Penn State to find other funding streams if that happens (Reuters | WPSU | See Illinois)
Rhode Island
Edesia, a Rhode Island nonprofit, makes ready to use therapeutic food (RTUF) that is delivered to 65 different countries. Following the stop-work order, 336,000 cartons of fortified peanut butter are now in limbo – that food would have gone to Nigeria, Haiti, Chad, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, and Madagascar. Edesia employs 160 people, and USAID accounts for 85% of the company’s business. (NPR)
Tennessee
A University of Tennessee program supporting agriculture education in developing countries is on hold while President Donald Trump’s administration reviews U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) spending. The university’s Smith Center for International Sustainable Agriculture leads the Agricultural Leaders of Tomorrow (ALOFT) program for Southeast Asia. U.S. volunteers travel to Cambodia, Thailand and the Philippines to provide 2-week technical training to support resilient food systems for institutions involving youth, according to the university’s website. USAID’s Farmer-to-Farmer Program awarded the Smith Center five years of funding for ALOFT in 2023, but the program is currently under a stop work order.(States Newsroom)
Vanderbilt University’s Center for Global Democracy was recently awarded a US$12.5 million five-year grant from USAID to conduct research on democratic governance in Latin America and the Caribbean. (Forbes)
Texas
30,000 tons of food purchased through a federal program to feed hungry people overseas were stuck at a warehouse in Houston’s port after President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid. The shipment was part of more than 500,000 tons of food stuck at ports around the world – including Boston, New York and Miami. Kansas Senator Jerry Moran said on X that food shipments have since resumed, but the USAID Inspector General said in a report dated February 10 that $489 million work of food aid was at risk of spoilage. (Houston Chronicle)
Vermont
A Vermont USAID contractor let go of 76 employees as a result of the freeze. Resonance has more than $3 million in unpaid invoices from USAID for expenses the company accrued since November while doing work under federal contracts, money it does not expect to receive anytime soon given the circumstances. (Boston Globe)
Video: Vermont workers feel ripple effect of USAID cuts (WCAX)
Virginia
in 2024, Virginia Tech received a $5 million grant from USAID to collaborate with higher education institutions in India to make that country’s infrastructure more resilient. (Stateline)
Washington
Washington State University has 11 federal awards under stop-work orders, seven of which come from the U.S. Agency for International Development. “That is still frozen. Even though we had the temporary restraining order, we have still not seen an unfreezing of USAID funding,” WSU Vice President for Research Kim Christen told the Spokesman Review. Most USAID work done by the university has not resumed, she added, and an additional $123,000 from the State Department also remains frozen. (Spokesman Review)
Wisconsin
Soybeans are one of the major commodities purchased by USAID, according to agricultural economist Paul Mitchell at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But Mitchell said foreign food aid also includes shelf-stable foods that may be produced by Wisconsin farms and food processors. With the agency’s website largely down, he said it’s almost impossible to determine what products could be affected.
“It’s going to have local effects,” Mitchell said. “How much of that is dried red kidney beans? I don’t know. How much is dried cranberries? I don’t know. How much is dehydrated potatoes from the state? It’s difficult to tell.” (Wisconsin Public Radio)
