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Kennedy froze U.S. contributions to Gavi vaccine alliance, withholding $600 million in appropriated funds

On June 25, 2025, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the United States would halt financial support for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, until the organization "re-earned the public trust" over its vaccine-safety practices, and the State Department, under Secretary Marco Rubio, deferred to his objections and did not disburse funding. By April 2026 the freeze had blocked $600 million Congress had specifically appropriated for fiscal years 2025 and 2026, prompting bipartisan Senate pressure before the administration announced on July 29, 2026 that it would release the full amount.

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Washington, D.C.

Abuses documented

Actors

On June 25, 2025, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced in a video message shown at a Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance fundraising summit in Brussels that the United States would halt its financial contributions to the organization until it "re-earned the public trust," citing objections to Gavi's continued use of thimerosal-containing and whole-cell pertussis vaccines. Gavi rejected Kennedy's characterization, saying its vaccine decisions follow World Health Organization safety recommendations. The announcement effectively froze the roughly $300 million the U.S. had contributed to Gavi annually, coming at a summit where Gavi was seeking $9 billion in new five-year pledges from donor governments.

Disbursement of Gavi funding had been transferred from the dismantled U.S. Agency for International Development to the State Department, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio deferred to Kennedy's objections and did not release the money, despite reporting that Kennedy had no statutory authority over foreign-aid disbursement decisions. Congress continued to appropriate funds for Gavi during the freeze — $300 million in fiscal year 2025 and another $300 million in fiscal year 2026 — but neither tranche was disbursed, leaving $600 million in congressionally directed funds unspent and set to expire if unused by September 30, 2026.

The scale of the freeze became widely public in reporting in April 2026, around the time Sen. Jeanne Shaheen pressed Kennedy directly on why the appropriated funds had not been delivered. Gavi said it had received none of the funding for either fiscal year, that the shortfall represented 15% of its operating budget, and that the resulting shortfall could contribute to the deaths of more than a million children in the low-income countries it serves.

Updates

2026-05-04 — Bipartisan senators demanded State Department release the $600 million [6]

Six senators — Jeanne Shaheen, Susan Collins, Patty Murray, Mitch McConnell, Brian Schatz and Lisa Murkowski — sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio asking why the State Department had not used the $600 million Congress appropriated in FY2025 and FY2026 to replenish U.S. funding to Gavi.

2026-07-29 — State Department announced it will release the full $600 million [7]

The administration announced it would release the full $600 million to Gavi, ending the roughly 13-month freeze that began with Kennedy's June 2025 announcement.

Why we recorded this

Congress alone holds the power of the purse; the executive branch cannot lawfully withhold money Congress has appropriated as leverage to compel a policy change it could not otherwise mandate. HHS Secretary Kennedy, who has no statutory role in foreign-aid disbursement, drove a freeze on $600 million in congressionally appropriated vaccine funding that lasted more than a year until Gavi met his demands, while the State Department deferred to his objections instead of executing the appropriation. This is a rule-of-law violation: an unelected cabinet official substituting personal funding leverage for the legislative process, at the cost of a program the recipient said could otherwise help prevent over a million child deaths.

Sources

  1. U.S. is pulling funding from Gavi, global group that has paid for more than a billion kids to get vaccinated — PBS NewsHour (Associated Press) primary accessed July 30, 2026
  2. US to stop funding global vaccine alliance Gavi, health secretary says — Al Jazeera investigative accessed July 30, 2026
  3. Kennedy pulls US support for Gavi's vaccine efforts — CIDRAP, University of Minnesota primary accessed July 30, 2026
  4. How RFK Jr. Managed to Block Millions in Global Vaccine Funds — Foreign Policy investigative accessed July 30, 2026
  5. US lawmakers seek answers on blocked funding for Gavi — CIDRAP, University of Minnesota secondary accessed July 30, 2026
  6. Shaheen, Collins, Colleagues Urge State Department to Restore Gavi Funding — U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations primary accessed July 30, 2026
  7. After Months of Pressure from Senator Shaheen, Administration Finally Releases Global Health Funds to Vaccinate Children and Prevent Global Outbreaks — Office of Sen. Jeanne Shaheen primary accessed July 30, 2026
  8. RFK Jr holding up distribution of $600 million in vaccines to foreign nations: report — CIDRAP, University of Minnesota secondary accessed July 30, 2026

See also