At a time of growing health, humanitarian, and development crises, the President’s Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) budget, released this week by the Biden Administration, lacks the ambition needed to meet immediate global health challenges and adequately prepare for those that may occur in the future.

Though the majority of global health accounts were funded at FY23 enacted levels, these resources have been stagnant for far too long. Simply maintaining current funding levels is, effectively, a decrease. The proposed cuts of more than $700 million to global health programs – including a reduction in the U.S. contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis from $2 billion to $1.2 billion – puts us at a significant disadvantage as the world seeks to reach key global health targets and the Sustainable Development Goals. There were, however, some brighter spots. Select areas – including family planning and support for global health workers – received modest increases.

“We had hoped that President Biden would want to leave a legacy of continued U.S. leadership in global health,” said Dunn-Georgiou. “In light of the current challenges the world faces, this proposed budget is, instead, putting the future in jeopardy.” 

Despite the fiscal constraints facing policymakers, now is not the time to continue flat funding for global health programs. Congressional policymakers must now finalize FY24 appropriations to prevent disastrous cuts and begin negotiations on FY25 appropriations in earnest. Any funding for FY25 must be additive to the enacted FY23 levels. We cannot afford to decrease global health funding any further without putting the health and well-being of people all over the world in jeopardy.