Collins warns OMB about unspent global health funding

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, called on the Trump administration to spend more than $1 billion of global health funding that Congress has already appropriated before it expires Wednesday.

In a letter sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought and Eric Ueland — the Trump aide in charge of the remnants of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) — Collins warned that $1.3 billion appropriated in fiscal 2025 must be spent as intended.

The Maine Republican said she doesn’t want to see the funding expire, or for the administration to use the money for “unknown closeout costs” related to the decision to shutter USAID.

“I urge USAID to ensure that the funding is spent to combat public health threats consistent with congressional intent, either by obligating the funding prior to the end of the fiscal year or transferring funds to the Department for such purposes,” she wrote.

The funding was meant to protect maternal and child health and counter infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

The letter comes on the heels of a warning earlier this week from top Senate Democrats about the administration’s decision to redirect more than $2 billion in appropriated foreign aid funding to closing down the agency .

Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) — the Senate’s top Democratic appropriator and the top Democrat on the panel that funds the State Department— said the administration is diverting the $1.3 billion for global health programs, as well as $1.2 billion for development assistance.

They added that the Trump administration plans to let an additional $725 million expire Sept. 30 instead of spending it.

That figure includes $115 million to combat the international illicit narcotics trade, human trafficking, and other international crimes; $310 million to counter Russia with U.S. assistance in Europe and Eurasia; and $300 million to invest in secure supply chains and American competitiveness through economic growth programs.

“Congress passed a law to invest in saving lives … it did not hand Trump a checkbook to spend on whatever he pleases while blocking funding for everything else,” Schatz and Murray said in a joint statement.

“The Trump administration needs to rework its plans and spend these resources as Congress intended, and we need Republicans in Congress to finally join us in insisting that happens,” the senators added.

The OMB did not immediately respond to questions about what it plans to do with the money.