Fact check: Which countries received the most aid from the Biden administration in 2023?

1. Why the Federal Budget Documents Don’t Name Top Recipient Countries — and What They Do Reveal

The Department of State and Foreign Operations congressional budget justification and its supplementary FY2025 tables are structured to explain programmatic allocations, objectives, and multiyear requests rather than to provide a definitive roster of country-level recipients for a single calendar year ^{[1] [2]}. These documents break down funding by account, program, and requested fiscal year, offering essential context about policy priorities—such as democracy promotion, humanitarian assistance, and development financing—but they stop short of listing which countries actually received the most disbursed aid in 2023. The FY2024 justification repeats that pattern: it is a planning and request instrument rather than an audited disbursement ledger ^[1].

2. Regional Reporting Points to Heavy Middle East Aid Flows During 2021–2023

Investigative reporting summarized available records to show that seventeen Middle Eastern countries received roughly $20.8 billion in U.S. foreign assistance during fiscal years 2021–2023, with Israel ($6.615 billion), Jordan ($3.8 billion), and Yemen ($3.2 billion) highlighted as the largest regional recipients in that period ^[3]. This aggregation spans three fiscal years and thus cannot be translated directly into single-year 2023 rankings without decomposing the fiscal-year timing and program types involved. Nevertheless, the figure signals that the Middle East was a major focus of Biden-era foreign assistance across multiple accounts and emergency responses ^[3].

3. Western Hemisphere Humanitarian Aid in 2023: Big New Commitments but Not Country Rankings

Press releases and embassy announcements document nearly $485 million in additional humanitarian assistance for the Western Hemisphere, largely allocated through State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration and USAID for refugees, migrants, and vulnerable populations—reflecting the administration’s response to acute regional crises rather than a country-specific long-term program ^{[4] [5]}. Those statements emphasize the U.S. role as a leading humanitarian donor in the region and cite cumulative two‑year contributions exceeding $2.1 billion, but they do not provide a ranked list of country recipients by total 2023 receipts ^[5].

4. Congressional Appropriations and Emergency Funding Changed the Aid Mix, Complicating 2023 Tallies

The passage of a $95 billion national security bill and subsequent appropriations injected billions into global humanitarian and recovery efforts, including $18.7 billion for USAID and State support for Ukraine and $9.15 billion for humanitarian crises, which reshaped disbursement flows around 2023–2024 ^[6]. These large legislative infusions mean that fiscal-year funding cycles and emergency transfers can produce spikes for particular countries or regions that are captured in FY budget documents and press statements but are not normalized in the programmatic budget justifications, complicating any attempt to assert which countries were the “most aided” in calendar-year 2023 without a disaggregated disbursement dataset ^{[6] [7]}.

5. What the Sources Agree On — And Where Their Agendas May Tilt the Picture

All materials agree that the State/USAID apparatus allocates funds by program and account rather than by single-year country tallies in public budget requests ^{[1] [2]}. The investigative piece emphasizing Middle East totals reflects an agenda of highlighting concentrated regional assistance and uses multi‑year aggregation to make that case ^[3]. State and USAID press statements focusing on Western Hemisphere humanitarian packages aim to underscore responsiveness and leadership in crises, which can spotlight commitments without revealing full country-by-country disbursements ^{[4] [5]}. Congressional budget commentary frames priorities and constraints rather than finalized receipts ^{[8] [7]}.

6. What’s Missing—and What Would Be Needed for a Definitive 2023 Ranking

A definitive answer requires audited disbursement data that maps actual outlays, obligations, and transfers in calendar year 2023 to recipient countries across all U.S. government accounts—State, USAID, DOD transfers, humanitarian emergency funds, and congressionally appropriated supplemental packages. The provided sources do not supply that granularity; instead they offer program-level budgets, regional aggregates, and multi‑year tallies ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]}. To produce a ranked list one would need to combine USAID/State disbursement reports, Treasury FX transfers, and congressional supplemental execution reports for 2023 and reconcile fiscal‑ vs. calendar‑year accounting.

7. Bottom Line for Readers Seeking the 2023 Country Rankings

Based on the supplied documents, the most supportable conclusion is that Middle Eastern recipients (notably Israel, Jordan, Yemen in 2021–2023 aggregates) and large Western Hemisphere humanitarian recipients were prime targets of Biden-era aid flows, but the materials do not allow a precise ranking of which individual countries received the most U.S. aid in calendar year 2023 specifically ^{[3] [4] [1]}. Users seeking a definitive ranked list should request or consult audited 2023 disbursement tables from USAID/State financial execution reports and Treasury obligations to reconcile fiscal-year program requests with actual country-level payments.