House Republicans Defied DOGE Cuts to Foreign Aid Org Used to Push Abortion Abroad

House Republicans kept almost a billion dollars in funding for an agency targeted by the Department of Government Efficiency after the Biden administration used it to promote abortion in Africa.

In April, Millennium Challenge Corporation employees received an email that they would be offered early retirement or deferred resignation after visits from DOGE, The New York Times reported.

“We understand from the DOGE team there will soon be a significant reduction in the number of MCC’s programs and relatedly the agency’s staff,” MCC’s acting chief executive said in an email to staff at the time.

In May, President Donald Trump requested a 75% reduction in funding for the Millennium Challenge Corporation in its 2026 discretionary budget request.

The Office of Management and Budget asked for just $224 million in discretionary funding for the MCC in fiscal year 2026, a decrease of $706 million from fiscal year 2025.

Yet Republicans chose to keep funding at its previous levels, $930 million.

The House Appropriations Committee, which has a Republican majority, voted to approve maintaining the MCC’s previous funding in the National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, on a vote of 35-to-27.

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., the House Appropriations Committee member who sponsored the bill, did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment on why he defied OMB’s request to lower funding for the MCC.

President George W. Bush created the MCC in 2004 as a way to aid poor nations while holding them accountable for using U.S. funds responsibly. But the agency swerved from its mission in later years, reaching a climax when the Biden administration used it push abortion in the African nation of Sierra Leone.

It was common knowledge among nongovernmental organizations there that the Millennium Challenge Corporation threatened to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars from a U.S. agreement with Sierra Leone unless its parliament passed a bill decriminalizing abortion before Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, a former senior U.S. government official who has worked in the West African region told The Daily Signal in December.

The so-called Safe Motherhood Act would legalize abortion up to 14 weeks for any reason and up to birth to protect the “mental health of the woman.” Abortion to save a woman’s life is already legal in Sierra Leone.

The Millennium Challenge Corporation’s press secretary, Jenel Few, told The Daily Signal in December the MCC was “unaware of any Sierra Leonean abortion legislation and has never made any requests to the government of Sierra Leone regarding abortion policies.”

The Millennium Challenge Corporation committed at the end of last month to govern itself in accordance with Trump’s “America First” foreign policy.

“The Foreign Assistance Review for MCC’s portfolio is complete,” the statement reads. “MCC’s resulting portfolio will clearly align with the Trump Administration’s ‘America First’ foreign policy and ensure that the agency continues to make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous.”