39 | Friday, September 19, 2025Trump administration's new global health aid strategy focuses on bilateral deals with countries Print | Front Page | Email this story To:From:Message:From (email):Message:NEW YORK (AP) — The State Department on Thursday announced it will refocus its foreign health assistance strategy around multiyear bilateral deals with recipient countries, making aid dependent on negotiations that officials say will help reduce waste and advance American priorities. "We must keep what is good about our health foreign assistance programs while rapidly fixing what is broken," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a letter about the new strategy. It also fits with Trump's concerns that foreign aid in previous administrations had diverged from America's values. His administration has dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, and cut billions in congressionally approved foreign aid money. An overview of the plan released by the State Department said global health programs "have become inefficient and wasteful."