Last week, news emerged of State Department plans to cut FY25 funding for 22 study abroad programs, rendering the programs cancelled in an unprecedented slashing of funding already approved by Congress.
“We were completely blindsided by the whole thing,” said a federal employee of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), speaking anonymously to The PIE News.
Rather than informing ECA staff, news of the cancelled funds was sent to state department regional bureau officials, they explained, eventually spreading throughout the study abroad community over social media and by word of mouth.
“We put our heart and soul into implementing these programs… for lots of people to find out about the cuts through a list shared on LinkedIn was deeply troubling,” said the employee.
While the decision to cancel the grants came from higher up, the emails were sent by a “non-political” ECA leader. Over a week has passed and ECA staff are yet to receive any official announcement from the administration.
Upon receiving the news, the study abroad community quickly galvanised, with a campaign by the Alliance for International Exchange which has seen at least 13,500 letters sent to Congress as of August 21.
“I do think the campaigns are going to be helpful… from where I sit within the ECA, we need these campaigns, our livelihoods depend on these campaigns,” said the source.
“My fear is that there’s nothing at this point that would stop the current administration from doing this again in FY26… I would say they’re laying the groundwork for that to be possible for that to have happen again,” they added.
Currently, the cancelled funds relate to fiscal year 2025, which ends on September 30, though many of the programs are forward funded, meaning that they were waiting on the FY25 funds to support the 2026 calendar year.
“For FY25, I’m not sure how we come back from this,” said the ECA staff member. “Even if everything came back online today, we would still have a paperwork issue of trying to get everything done before the September 30 deadline.”
As such, the campaigns are fighting for the long-term survival of study abroad, amid “real fears” of programs unable to reopen in the following year.
“If we allow the Office for Management and Budget (OMB) to cut these congressionally appropriated FY25 awards, it will give them license to do it again and again, effectively eliminating exchange programs,” stated the Alliance.
Though ECA staff were not privy to high level conversations between ECA official Darren Beattie and State Department leadership, a notable difference this year was the presence of OMB, “who have never ever been involved in this process previously”, said the employee.
What’s more, experts have questioned the legality of the cuts, with stakeholders highlighting that the cancellation of funding already approved by Congress is “unconstitutional”.
This is one of the primary messages of the campaign, which the ECA source said they hoped would “set the stage” for FY26 to ensure that Congress decides.
We put our heart and soul into implementing these programs… for lots of people to find out about the cuts through a list shared on LinkedIn was deeply troubling
ECA employee
“We are letting the administration and Congress know that these programs have a valuable impact and that they could meet administrative priorities if they decided to use them the way they’re meant to be used,” they added.
After a slate of State Department layoffs last month, ECA staff are thought to be safe from job losses caused by the cuts, though staff furloughs are widely expected among program implementers, with whole organisations at risk of going under.
More broadly, employees are concerned about the “dire” consequences for US diplomacy and soft power.
“All the people that work on exchange programs that I have ever encountered had an international experience that changed our lives,” said the employee. “From a policy perspective, that’s the definition of soft power, and the consequence of not having those connections for even a year are dire.”
“I have every reason to believe that this administration is doing this with other aspects of the federal government, and we just don’t know that it’s going on.”
“ECA has this large alumni network that is passionate, and we can make our voices heard by Congress,” they said. “But my biggest fear is that if ECA doesn’t come out on top then it’s going to have a greater impact on other grants in other industries that don’t have a voice as loud as ours.”
Other than being deemed as a “lower funding priority in the current fiscal environment”, no rationale has been provided for which programs got the axe, with the ECA employee particularly surprised by the cancellation of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI).
Established in 2010, YALI had the support of the Trump administration, with the employee deeming it “one of the best US programs for the African continent”.
As for the remaining initiatives, including the state department’s flagship Fulbright Scholarship, nothing is off the table.
“Fulbright carries the weight of more protections than most,” said the ECA employee: “That being said, I think alumni need to pay attention. I don’t think anything is out of the realm.”
The State Department did not immediately reply to The PIE’s request for comment.
