TOF President’s Statement on Federal Funding Freeze on Foreign Aid

29 January 2025

Thank you to all who have donated to help us through the crisis caused by the abrupt halt in federal funding for our work with small island states and other coastal nations worldwide. A special thank you goes to those who called or wrote to their congressional representatives. Please know we also really appreciate your words of support—it helps! Some of you have asked if the federal judge who temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s budget directive to freeze billions in federal grants and loans rescued us (the freeze appears to have been reversed by the White House today).

Unfortunately, blocking or lifting the freeze does NOT apply to programs implicated by specific Executive Orders, such as the one reevaluating U.S. foreign aid. That order requires agencies to review funding to ensure alignment with the administration’s policy objectives. So, our funding has been frozen for 90 days!

Every new administration shifts policies and priorities—that’s a given. This said, some of the same concerns can and should apply in all transitions. The abrupt halting of foreign aid, including reimbursements, and suspension of all work create concerns about potentially irreparable harm to previous and current American investments because it disrupts critical programs and undermines the trust we’ve worked hard to build. There is still a need for clarity on the re-evaluation’s scope and legal basis because there is no plausible argument that the president has the constitutional authority to refuse to spend previously appropriated or approved funds just because he doesn’t like how the money is being spent.