More than 100 health and national security figures have signed an open letter urging the United States to keep funding the Pan American Health Organization, after the administration’s budget request to Congress proposed eliminating its contribution.
The letter was published on 30 July by Friends of PAHO, a newly formed bipartisan coalition. Signatories include former US health administrators, former White House officials and corporate leaders.
What does the letter argue?
The signatories say membership gives the United States early warning of infectious disease threats before they reach American communities, and that the cost amounts to roughly 0.0011 per cent of total federal spending.
What is PAHO?
The Pan American Health Organization is the World Health Organization’s regional office for the Americas. It was founded in Washington DC in 1902, making it the oldest international public health body, and is headquartered there with 27 country offices across the region. PAHO coordinates disease surveillance, prevention and outbreak response across the Americas and the Caribbean, and has contributed to the control or elimination of yellow fever, smallpox, polio and malaria. The administration’s fiscal year 2027 budget request to Congress proposes eliminating US funding for the organisation, alongside funding for the World Health Organization and the United Nations Population Fund. On 30 July 2026 a bipartisan coalition named Friends of PAHO published an open letter signed by more than 100 health and national security figures opposing the cut.
What is being proposed?
The fiscal year 2027 request would remove US funding for PAHO entirely. KFF noted the same request eliminates funding for the World Health Organization and the United Nations Population Fund.
Analysis of the wider budget shows a proposed reduction of about $4.3 billion from the federal global health budget, with domestic health programmes also cut. The request has to be approved by Congress.
| Detail | PAHO |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1902, Washington DC |
| Role | WHO regional office for the Americas |
| Country offices | 27 |
| Share of US federal spending | 0.0011% |
Why does it matter now?
PAHO is the body that will review United States measles transmission data later this year to determine whether the country retains the elimination status it has held since 2000. The US has recorded its highest measles case count since 1991.
The organisation was established under President Theodore Roosevelt and has operated for 124 years. Its regional surveillance network is the mechanism through which outbreak data moves between countries in the Americas, and there is no parallel structure that would take on the role.
What has already changed?
The proposal follows a broader retrenchment in United States global health spending. Domestic programmes face reductions alongside the international cuts, covering HIV and AIDS, maternal and child health, mental health services and health workforce funding.
PAHO country offices carry out mosquito surveillance, vaccination campaigns and laboratory support across Latin America and the Caribbean. That work generates much of the data United States agencies use to anticipate outbreaks arriving through travel and trade.
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Sources for this report
The Redline News Desk
The Redline News desk files and edits world reporting. Every story carries the sources it was built from, and corrections are published on the story itself.
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