Press Releases

Washington, D.C. – Congressman James R. Walkinshaw (VA-11) issued the following statement after public reports show that preventable child deaths will rise for the first time this century, with 200,000 more children expected to die this year:

“This is what happens when a president dismantles America’s leadership in providing and implementing foreign assistance to advance his own fraught political agenda,” said Congressman Walkinshaw. “Donald Trump and DOGE froze foreign aid, fired all 10,000 USAID personnel, and slashed $14 billion from programs that feed children, deliver vaccines, and stabilize local communities. In doing so, he didn’t just gut lifesaving programs—he weakened America’s influence, undermined our credibility, abandoned the moral leadership that has defined us for generations, and created a pathway for foreign adversaries to fill the gaps. The result is exactly what experts warned: soup kitchens closing, babies starving, and children dying for lack of access to preventive medicine. This is 100% avoidable. There is no reason children across the world should be dying from a preventable disease.”

In October, Walkinshaw and Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (VA-10) led seven Members of Congress in demanding a full Inspector General investigation into the Trump Administration’s dismantlement of USAID, warning that the move violated statutory requirements, undermined U.S. national security, and created massive risks of waste, fraud, and abuse.

The State Department Inspector General has already found that following Trump’s restructuring, $800,000 in emergency food commodities expired and were destroyed that could have fed 1.5 million children for a week.

“The United States must rebuild what was torn apart and revitalize our role as a force for life-saving work around the world. Children should not die because a president chose politics over humanity,” concluded Congressman Walkinshaw.

Read the full U.S. Foreign Aid Freeze and Dissolution of USAID timeline of events.

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