U.S. Senate and House negotiators on Sunday night jointly released the overdue text for the fiscal 2026 foreign aid and diplomacy spending bill. And, somewhat surprisingly, it largely rejects the draconian cuts sought by U.S. President Donald Trump and even provides funding for several journalism organizations and democracy-promotion efforts that billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency tried to shutter.
House Republicans highlighted the $9.3 billion (or 16 percent) in spending cuts that the compromise legislation would make to top-line funding levels compared to fiscal 2025 enacted levels. Senate Democrats, meanwhile, touted that the spending measure is still $3.8 billion higher than the version produced last summer by House Republicans—and $19 billion more than what the White House had requested.
The $50 billion appropriations measure that funds the State Department, foreign assistance accounts, and other smaller international affairs-related programs could still be amended on its way to final passage, which is expected this month. But the legislation was painstakingly negotiated between senior Republican and Democratic appropriators in both chambers and is likely close to the final version.
The legislation represents the first foreign aid bill to be fully negotiated during the second Trump administration and as such bears his influence in numerous areas. Those include the creation of a first-of-its-kind flexible spending account called the America First Opportunity Fund; nearly $1 billion in operational funding for the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation; and a directive for Secretary of State Marco Rubio to start winding down a well-regarded global anti-HIV program, known as PEPFAR.
The White House initially proposed the America First fund as an unrestricted $2.9 billion account for Rubio to use in pursuit of “strategic investments” for U.S. benefit, but it was quickly slammed by Democrats as a “slush fund.” Congressional negotiators ultimately settled on putting $850 million into the new fund and set some broad funding lines within the account, but they held off on designating specific country or project spending amounts.
The legislation does not attempt to address either Trump’s recent unauthorized military operations in Venezuela or his fresh threats to annex Greenland. For now, the Senate is focused on using the 1973 War Powers Resolution to impose limitations on future military operations in Venezuela.
And while the bill provides no new funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development, it also doesn’t include any official close-out language or wind-down directives, leaving the door ajar for a possible effort to revive the foreign aid agency under a different administration.
“While no compromise is perfect and there are certainly additional needs to be addressed to advance American interests abroad, this deal minimizes cuts, protects funding for critical programs, and reaffirms Congress’s spending authority,” said Liz Schrayer, president of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, a bipartisan foreign aid lobbying organization. “It also rejects other harsher proposals that would have undercut America’s global footprint at a time when our rivals like China, Russia, and Iran are eager to step into the void.”
Though the White House proposed decimating the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s budget by over 75 percent, according to a December report by the Congressional Research Service, Democrats and Republicans settled on a less destructive cut. Their legislation would provide $830 million to the metrics-driven anti-poverty development agency, compared to the $930 million appropriated for it in fiscal 2025. That’s $606 million more than what the White House requested.
The legislation also includes $5.5 billion in humanitarian aid, which is more than the $4 billion requested by the administration but still less than the over $7.4 billion Congress provided in fiscal 2025.
Contrary to the administration’s wishes, the legislation would continue funding to the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which includes Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Radio Free Asia, providing $643 million. That amount is a notable drop from the nearly $870 million the office was budgeted to receive for fiscal 2025 until last March when Trump and Musk ordered the closure of all U.S. taxpayer-funded international broadcasting operations. Journalists for USAGM outlets are still fighting those closure orders in court.
And lawmakers are completely ignoring the administration’s budget proposal to zero out funding for the National Endowment for Democracy, which provides grants for democracy promotion and human rights advocacy around the globe, instead providing $315 million in yearly funding—the same as last year before Trump and Musk tried to shutter the foundation by withholding its congressionally directed funding.
The U.S. Institute of Peace, which the administration has renamed for Trump even as it continues to try to force the think tank’s shutdown in court, would receive $20 million under the legislation, which is slightly above the $18.5 million in close-out costs requested by the administration. That’s half of its $40 million appropriation for fiscal 2025.
And the Inter-American Foundation and the United States African Development Foundation, smaller regional grant-making entities that Trump and Musk put on the chopping block, are both funded, though at markedly different levels.
Perhaps because of the administration’s efforts to assert dominance throughout the Western Hemisphere, the Inter-American Foundation, which supports democratic governance and community-led development projects in Latin America, would receive a significant plus-up, going from $20 million at current levels to $29 million in fiscal 2026. The administration had sought just $10 million in close-out costs for the foundation.
However, the African Development Foundation, which provides modest economic development grants to community organizations and small businesses in Africa, would see its funding slashed from $23 million at enacted levels to just $12 million for fiscal 2026. But that level is still more than the $6 million in close-out costs requested by the White House.