United States Agency for International Development
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The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is a de jure independent agency of the United States. Until 2025, it was the world's largest agency for foreign aid. USAID was established in 1961 to compete with the Soviet Union during the Cold War through the use of soft power. In 2025, the Trump administration ended 83% of overall projects and folded remaining USAID programs into the State Department. However, USAID had been reorganized by the United States Congress as an independent agency in 1998 and can only be closed down by an act of Congress. As such, it legally exists. In addition, budget requests, the Office of Inspector General, and court filings have continued to acknowledge USAID's legal existence. From 2001 to 2024, USAID had an average budget of $23 billion a year and missions in over 100 countries in areas as diverse as education, global health, environmental protection, and democratic governance. In the twenty years from 2001 to 2021, USAID saved a yearly estimated range of between 4.1 and 4.7 million lives, with a yearly estimated subset of between 1.2 and 1.7 million children under five saved.