Dozens of senior officials have been sent on furlough. Thousands of contractors have been laid off. A funding freeze has suspended billions of dollars in aid to other countries.
Over the past two weeks, President Donald Trump's administration has made significant changes to the U.S. agency that manages humanitarian aid to other countries. That has left aid organizations questioning whether they can continue programs such as food assistance for malnourished infants and children.
Speaking to reporters in El Salvador, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that:
"I am the acting director of USAID. I have delegated this authority to someone, but I remain in contact with him. And again, our goal was to engage in aligning our assistance to other countries with the national interest."
"My frustration with USAID dates back to my time in Congress. It is an agency that has absolutely no accountability. It should respond to State Department policy directives and it refuses to do so."
“I made it very clear during my confirmation hearing that every dollar we spend and every program we fund will be in the national interest of the United States. And USAID has consistently ignored that and has decided to be a global charity, separate from the national interest. These are taxpayer dollars, and so I am very concerned by these reports that they have not been willing to cooperate with people who are asking simple questions about what this program does? Who gets the money? Who are our contractors? Who is funded, and that kind of insubordination makes it impossible to have the kind of mature and serious review that I think aid to other countries should have.”
"USAID is not an independent non-governmental entity. It is an entity that spends taxpayer dollars and must spend them, as the statute states, in accordance with the policy directives they receive from the Secretary of State, the National Security Council, and the President," said Secretary Rubio.
During the Cold War, former President John F. Kennedy established the United States Agency for International Development, known as USAID. In the decades that followed, Republicans and Democrats have debated the agency and its funding.
Let's take a look at USAID, its history, and the changes made since President Trump took office.
Former President Kennedy created USAID at the height of the Cold War with the former Soviet Union. He wanted a more effective way to counter Soviet influence on the international stage through aid to other countries, a function for which he felt the State Department was too bureaucratic.
Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act and former President Kennedy created USAID as an independent agency in 1961.
USAID continued to operate after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Today, USAID supporters say that USAID's assistance to other countries counters the influence of Russia and China. China has its own "One Belt, One Road" program for aid to other countries and is active in many countries that the United States wants to partner with.
Critics say the programs are wasteful and promote a liberal agenda.
What is happening with USAID now?
On his first day in office on January 20, President Trump imposed a 90-day freeze on aid to other countries. Four days later, Peter Marocco, a political appointee since the first Trump administration, drafted a harsher-than-expected interpretation of the order, closing thousands of programs around the world, causing cuts and layoffs.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has taken steps to keep some life-saving emergency programs running during the freeze. But confusion over which programs are exempt from the shutdown orders and fears they could lose U.S. aid forever have stalled aid and development work around the globe.
Dozens of senior officials have been furloughed, thousands of contractors have been laid off, and employees were told Monday not to enter the headquarters in Washington. And USAID's website and its account on the X platform are down.
This is part of the measures that President Trump's administration is taking across the federal government and its programs. But USAID and aid to other countries are among those that have been hit hardest.
Secretary Rubio said the administration's goal was a review, program by program, to see which projects make "America safer, stronger or more prosperous."
The decision to close U.S.-funded programs during the 90-day review meant the U.S. would "get much more cooperation" from recipients of humanitarian, development and security assistance, Secretary Rubio said.
What do USAID critics say?
Republicans typically seek to give the State Department—which provides overall foreign policy guidance to USAID—more control over its policy and funding. Democrats typically seek autonomy and authority for USAID.
Republicans have traditionally sought to cut funding for United Nations agencies, including peacekeeping, human rights and refugee agencies. The first Trump administration took steps to reduce spending on international aid, suspending payments to various UN agencies, including the UN Population Fund and funding for the Palestinian Authority.
In President Trump's first term, the United States withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council and its financial obligations to that body. The United States is also prohibited from funding the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, under a bill signed by former President Joe Biden last March.
Why is Elon Musk focused on USAID?
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Mr. Musk, has launched a sweeping effort, authorized by President Trump, to cut government employees and cut trillions of dollars from the government budget. USAID is one of its main targets. Mr. Musk claims that USAID funds have been used to set up deadly programs and called it a "criminal organization."
What are the consequences of freezing USAID funds?
Sub-Saharan Africa could suffer more than any other region during the aid pause. The United States gave the region more than $6.5 billion in humanitarian aid last year. HIV/AIDS patients in Africa arriving at clinics funded by a well-known American program that helped curb the global AIDS epidemic of the 1980s found their doors closed.
There are already repercussions in Latin America. In Mexico, a reception center for migrants in southern Mexico has been left without a doctor. A program to provide mental health support to LGBTQ+ youth fleeing Venezuela has been dismantled.
In Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Guatemala, so-called "Secure Movement Offices" where migrants can apply to enter the US legally have been closed.
The aid community is struggling to get a full picture - how many thousands of programs have been closed and how many thousands of employees have been laid off with the freeze on programs?
How much does the US spend on aid to other countries?
In total, the United States spent about $40 billion in aid to other countries in fiscal year 2023, according to a report released last month by the Congressional Research Service, a nonpartisan entity.
The United States is the largest contributor of humanitarian aid globally, although some other countries spend a larger portion of their budgets on this purpose. Aid to other countries generally amounts to less than 1% of the United States budget.
Can President Trump dissolve USAID without legislative approval?
Democrats say presidents lack the constitutional authority to eliminate USAID. But it's not clear what would stop such an effort.
A miniature version of the potential legal battle took place in President Trump's first term, when he tried to cut the budget for foreign operations by a third.
When Congress refused, the Trump administration used freezes and other tactics to cut off the flow of funds already appropriated by Congress for overseas programs. The General Accounting Office later ruled that a law known as the Shutdown Control Act had been violated.
It is a law that we may hear more about in the coming period.
"Live by executive order, die by executive order," Mr. Musk said Saturday on the X network, referring to USAID. VOA (A2 Televizion)
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