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PBS News Hour - Segments

Catholic Relief Services faces uncertain future after Trump cuts aid funding

PBS News Hour - Segments

PBS NewsHour

News, Daily News

41K Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2025

⏱️ 7 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

One of the first major policy decisions of the second Trump administration was a significant change in spending on foreign aid. That eventually included effectively dissolving the U.S. Agency for International Development, the primary organization that distributed those funds. Deema Zein reports on how one major recipient of USAID funding is grappling with the impact. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

Transcript

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0:00.0

One of the first major policy changes of the second Trump administration was a significant cut to foreign aid.

0:06.8

That eventually included effectively dissolving the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID,

0:13.3

the primary organization that distributed funding for aid across the globe.

0:17.8

Dima Zane reports on how one major recipient of USAID funding is grappling

0:22.6

with the impact.

0:23.6

On a rural hillside in southwest Honduras, farmer Isidro Lopez is installing his own water

0:31.6

delivery system. Drip irrigation linked to this reservoir allows Lopez to support his family year-round

0:38.8

in this drought-stricken region.

0:41.1

But the work of farmers like him is now on hold.

0:47.3

The impact of the halt in USAID funding is really tremendous.

0:51.9

We have lost projects that guarantee food security for families who can't

0:56.3

otherwise put food on the table.

0:58.7

Julio Cesar Cole runs Aso Mainko Paco, the organization supporting Lopez's work.

1:06.2

These are communities in which poverty will increase. These are communities where young people are going to lose opportunities,

1:13.6

or end up living in an eternal cycle of poverty,

1:16.6

and most probably end up immigrating.

1:19.6

It's just one of more than a thousand local partners

1:22.6

that work with International Humanitarian Agency,

1:25.6

Catholic Relief Services, or CRS.

1:28.3

Today, the organization works in over 120 countries with both faith-based and secular nonprofits.

1:36.3

CRS was one of the largest recipients of USAID funding, which made up nearly two-thirds of its total budget.

1:45.6

That money was used to distribute life-saving food aid, prevent the spread of infectious disease,

...

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