World

Billions on Hold: The US Makes a Shocking Decision on Foreign Aid

US Halts Nearly All Foreign Aid in Major Policy Shift

The US State Department has suspended practically all foreign assistance globally, effective immediately, after President Donald Trump’s sweeping executive order on Monday to halt such funding for 90 days.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote a letter to all US diplomatic postings on Friday announcing the action, which threatens billions of dollars in State Department and US Agency for International Development (USAID) financing for projects across the world.

Foreign aid has sparked criticism from Republicans in Congress and Trump administration officials, but it makes for a small portion of the total US budget. The extent of the presidential order and subsequent cable has shocked humanitarian and State Department experts.



The cable asks for immediate “stop work” orders on existing foreign assistance and halts future aid. It is broad in scope, appearing to target virtually all foreign assistance, including crucial global health aid, development support, and even military aid.

The cable waives only emergency food aid and international military finance for Israel and Egypt. The message makes no particular reference of any other nations that receive foreign military money, such as Ukraine or Taiwan, being excluded from the moratorium.

According to the cable, in the following month, the administration will set parameters for an assessment of whether the assistance is “aligned with President Trump’s foreign policy agenda.”

“Decisions on whether to continue, modify, or terminate programs will be made following this review,” according to the cable, which should be completed within 85 days.

In a public statement issued on Wednesday, Rubio stated that “every dollar we spend, every program we finance, and every policy we follow must be justified by answering three basic questions: Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? “Does it make America more prosperous?”

The embargo on help is expected to have a massive impact because the United States is routinely the world’s greatest humanitarian contributor.

The State Department’s directive waives both emergency food aid and foreign military finance for Israel and Egypt. The cable makes no mention of any other countries that receive foreign military money, such as Ukraine or Taiwan.

According to one humanitarian official, the suspension is extremely disruptive, and the cable’s specifics are “as bad as they can be.”

Another official told AWN that while they expected cuts or modifications to aid to certain locations, they did not anticipate such a broad and abrupt freeze. They stated that humanitarian needs are urgent across the world, and that a US aid freeze might be disastrous.

In his executive order, Trump stated that the US “foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and, in many cases, antithetical to American values.”

However, one of the officials stated that assistance programs, such as those connected to global health, which are targeted by the freeze, are beneficial to the United States and have had bipartisan support.

“We are interested in preventing pandemics. “Global stability is in our interest,” they stated.

Democratic Reps. Gregory Meeks of New York and Lois Frankel of Florida wrote to Rubio on Friday that programs that appear to be affected by the freeze, such as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), “depend on an uninterrupted supply of medicines.” PEPFAR and PMI were introduced by Republican President George W. Bush and have long had bipartisan backing.

Meeks is the senior Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Frankel is a member of the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Subcommittee, therefore they both have control of State Department and USAID money.

They went on to say that people all across the world, including those in conflict-torn Gaza, Sudan, Haiti, and Ukraine, rely on the United States to keep providing relief.

“Congress has appropriated and cleared these funds for use, and it is our constitutional duty to make sure these funds are spent as directed,” according to the letter. “These funds respond directly to your stated challenge of carrying out a foreign policy that makes the United States stronger, safer, and more prosperous.”

The International AIDS Society said on Saturday that ending PEPFAR would jeopardize millions of lives. In a statement, IAS President Beatriz Grinsztejn stated, “This is a question of life and death. PEPFAR supplies lifesaving antiretrovirals to almost 20 million individuals, and cutting its financing effectively ends their HIV treatment. If that happens, people will die, and HIV will resurface.



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