{"id":51540,"date":"2025-07-05T11:21:31","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T11:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/?p=51540"},"modified":"2025-07-21T10:03:56","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T10:03:56","slug":"latest-news-on-us-crisis-legal-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/51540","title":{"rendered":"Latest news on US crisis (3 July): legal challenges, Global Fund, WHO, Kigali conference"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Paul Clift for CHANGE and EATG<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-50343\" src=\"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/CHANGE-logo-300x167.png\" alt=\"CHANGE logo in dark red with text underneath. CHANGE. Coalition of Health &amp; HIV Advocates Navigating Global Emergencies.\" width=\"225\" height=\"129\" \/>The following notes are based on the weekly activist webinar organised by the CHANGE network on 3 July 2025.<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Email: <a href=\"mailto:contact.change.2025@gmail.com\">contact.change.2025@gmail.com<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/pepfarwatch.org\/pepfar-funding-freeze\/\">pepfarwatch.org\/pepfar-funding-freeze<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>US challenges and government policy news<\/h2>\n<p>Most of this week&#8217;s CHANGE meeting \u2013 about three-quarters of it \u2013 was devoted to legal updates. This presented a very detailed summary of the US legal processes so far.<\/p>\n<p>I am not going into any detail on this because US-specific law and legal process lies so far outside our European focus. That said, it is of most urgent interest and relevance to our US comrades, and it is clear that US advocates are well engaged with the whole landscape of legal challenges to US Govt orders etc.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, you might be interested to see the judicial findings of Judge Young of the US District Court, District of Massachusetts, in the case of American Public Health Association and others vs NIH and US Dept of Health and Human Services. From the introduction:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Based upon the evidence presented at the hearing&#8230; this Court concludes what has been occurring at the Department of Health and Human Services (\u201cHHS\u201d) and the National Institutes of Health (\u201cNIH\u201d) with respect to its disruption of grants, the grant making process and the pipeline of future scientists by forbidding by fiat certain topics, is on this Administrative Record, illegal under the Administrative Procedure Act (&#8220;APA&#8221;).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/documents\/apha-v-nih-findings-of-fact-ruling-of-law-and-order-for-partial-separate-and-final-judgement\">APHA v. NIH &#8211; Findings of Fact, Ruling of Law, and Order for Partial Separate and Final Judgement (2 July 2025)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, the current administration has a record of ignoring &#8216;inconvenient&#8217; court findings. It&#8217;s also becoming clear that the US Govt has a plan to counter challenges to their actions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Trump\u2019s tax and spending bill passes Congress<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The bill\u2019s centerpiece is a permanent extension of tax cuts made in 2017, during Trump\u2019s first term, as well as the creation of new, temporary exemptions for tips, overtime pay and car loan interest that the president promised voters during last year\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n<p>The government will lose trillions of dollars in revenue from those provisions, and to offset their costs, Republicans approved\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/jun\/28\/trump-snap-food-benefits-cuts\">an array of cuts<\/a>\u00a0to Medicaid, the federal program providing health insurance coverage to poor and disabled Americans&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Guardian article: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/jun\/28\/trump-snap-food-benefits-cuts\">Trump\u2019s tax-and-spending bill passes Congress in major win for president<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This article explains that this bill \u2013 Trump&#8217;s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill or OBBB \u2013 makes huge cuts to taxes, especially for the better-off, which necessitates spending cuts to a range of public services. Resulting changes to Medicaid &#8216;could cost as many as 11.8 million people their healthcare&#8217; (some estimates from other sources put this figure even higher \u2013 17 million was mentioned in the CHANGE meeting, but without references).<\/p>\n<p>The biggest expenditure gain appears to be Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) which sees &#8220;$45bn for ICE detention facilities, $14bn for deportation operations and billions of dollars more to hire 10,000 new agents by 2029. An additional $50bn will go towards the border wall and other fortifications.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Rescission<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The rescission package presented to Congress has cuts to PEPFAR etc &#8216;that will kill people&#8217;. As noted last week, this rescission package and process is part of the US Govt&#8217;s process of transferring maximum powers to the Executive.<\/p>\n<p>The rescission vote is on July 14th \u2013 US advocates have expressed fears that the vote might be lost and the rescission package will go through.<\/p>\n<h2>2. Stand Up For Aid Situation Report #14<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/usaidalumni.org\">The latest situation report produced by the\u00a0USAID Alumni Association<\/a> (UAA) is now available.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;We provide updates on the USAID realignment to State, bipartisan support on the Hill for the continuation of international assistance, and the uncertainty for USAID partners moving forward.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This excellent and intensive 20-page report includes the status of USAID programmes with half of the report comprehensively covering media clips and news.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/usaidalumni.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Stand-Up-for-Aid-Situation-Report-14_06.30.2025.pdf\">Stand Up for Aid Situation Report #14<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/usaidalumni.org\/articles\">Listing of all significant news reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>3. Global Fund update<\/h2>\n<p>GF has started the process of funding deallocation. Letters went out on Monday 30 June announcing funding adjustments \u2013 funding cuts \u2013 by country.<\/p>\n<h2>4. Changes at WHO<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/healthpolicy-watch.news\/exclusive-who-chief-names-new-team-of-directors-mostly-familiar-faces\/\">WHO Chief Names New Team of Directors \u2013 Mostly Familiar Faces<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This is the latest phase of WHO&#8217;s reorganisation following a crisis\u00a0triggered by the withdrawal of the United States, WHO\u2019s biggest donor, in January 2025, and its abrogation of dues payments, even for the 2024 year.<\/p>\n<p>In the wake of the US exit, WHO member states slashed WHO\u2019s projected 2026-27 base budget by over 20%, yet it remains about\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/healthpolicy-watch.news\/african-nations-ask-who-for-increased-funding-as-global-health-aid-hits-decade-low\/\">$1.65 billion\u00a0underfunded<\/a>. In May, World Health Assembly members also agreed to a 20% increase in assessed fees for member states, handing a lifeline to WHO\u2019s operations. Still, WHO is faced with a need to reduce\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/healthpolicy-watch.news\/who-projects-30-reduction-in-mid-level-professionals-for-26-27-few-high-level-staff-to-go\/\">overall staff\u00a0costs by 20-25%<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Tereza Kasaeva, former head of WHO\u2019s TB department, has been named director of the newly combined WHO Department of HIV, Tuberculosis, Hepatitis, and Sexually Transmitted Infections.<\/p>\n<h2>5. TB Community Coordination Hub Call<\/h2>\n<p>(15 July 2025 14:00 CET).<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Lucica Ditiu (ED of Stop TB Partnership) will join this call to share information about their updated scope of work (SOW) with the US, staff cuts, and more. This will also be an opportunity for you to ask questions and share experiences or calls to action.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/zoom.us\/meeting\/register\/XAwDNZ7CRYC-48DC5YkOzg#\/registration\">Register for the call here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>6. Upcoming IAS conference in Kigali<\/h2>\n<p>Advocates going to IAS Kigali are urged to connect with attendees from WHO and other relevant organisations to advocate for the strongest possible funding of services etc.<\/p>\n<p>This is an chance to seek out allies and make the most of every opportunity for advocacy.<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"actionnetwork.org\/petitions\/kigali\">sign-on petition addressed to world leaders<\/a> has been posted online.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/51418\">Read the i-Base report on it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paul Clift for CHANGE and EATG The following notes are based on the weekly activist webinar organised by the CHANGE network on 3 July 2025. Email: contact.change.2025@gmail.com pepfarwatch.org\/pepfar-funding-freeze US challenges and government policy news Most of this week&#8217;s CHANGE meeting &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-treatment-access","category-activism-advocacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51540"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51948,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51540\/revisions\/51948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}