Winners & Losers: US FY2026 Foreign Assistance Budget : Wayan Vota / Informed Alarmists / Substack

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Summary
Wayan Vota presents a stark assessment of the Biden administration’s proposed FY2026 foreign assistance budget, calling it a “catastrophic” rupture with 75 years of U.S. development and humanitarian policy.

The proposal eliminates funding for dozens of long-standing aid programs and multilateral institutions, including Development Assistance, the Democracy Fund, and U.S. contributions to the UN, WHO, and UNRWA. A new $2.9 billion “America First Opportunity Fund” prioritizes transactional, ROI-driven international engagement through the State Department and Development Finance Corporation, displacing USAID’s traditional humanitarian approach. The budget also cuts 90% of democracy support staff and 54% of humanitarian personnel. Vota argues this signals the collapse of predictable, multiyear U.S. foreign assistance and urges aid professionals to reorient their careers toward private sector or non-U.S. donor pathways.

Quotes

• “The programs we've spent careers building are being zeroed out.”

• “The transition from FY2025 to FY2026 represents one of the most dramatic realignments in U.S. international engagement since the Cold War.”

• “The humanitarian imperative that has driven our sector is being replaced by transactional bilateralism focused on advancing narrow U.S. interests.”

• “There is no funding requested in FY2026 for any of these activities: Development Assistance, Democracy Fund, UNRWA, WHO, UN Human Rights Council…”

• “We need to be clear-eyed about what we're facing. The humanitarian sector… it died on January 20th.”