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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered an immediate stop to work on almost all existing foreign aid programs while waiting for an exam to know if they comply with President Donald Trump’s policies, according to an internal cable seen by the Financial Times.
This decision will affect international assistance contracts administered by Washington, in particular through the American agency for international development, worth billions of dollars and countries enjoining around the world.
Friday, in the cable sent to the State Department and to the USAID, Rubio said that all the new foreign help The disbursements had to be suspended and contractual agents and grant agents had to “immediately issue stop working orders. . . Until the secretary determines, following an examination. ”
The examination period should last up to 85 days, leaving the fate of hundreds of American foreign aid contracts, which were worth more than $ 70 billion in 2022 Exercise, potentially in limbo for three months.
Rubio also ordered that any foreign aid paid through an agency or a department is approved by the Secretary of State, centralizing the verification of all international assistance programs within his office.
Rubio’s cable implements a decree signed by Trump during his first day in power. The president criticized the “foreign aid industry and bureaucracy” as “not aligned with American interests and in many antithetical cases on American values”, and asked that the assistance be suspended.
In the first days of his second mandate in the White House, Trump took aggressive measures to reshape and redirect all the US government agencies to implement its policies.
Scientific agencies such as the National Institutes of Health have also taken a break awaiting grants while waiting for the new administration, the alarming researchers.
There are some exceptions to the freezing order of Rubio de Rubio, including “approved derogations” for military funding for Israel and Egypt, as well as foreign emergency aid. But the cable said that in addition to taking a break from new and existing contracts, American government agencies, including USAID, must stop publishing proposals for foreign aid projects.
Earlier this week, Rubio declared in a statement that Trump asked him “to place our fundamental national interest as the director of American foreign policy”, affirming among his main priorities limited mass migration and the abolition of policies climatic climatic “weaken” America.
“Each dollar that we spend, each program we are financing and each policy that we pursue must be justified with the answer to three simple questions: does that make America safer? Does this make America stronger? Does that make America more prosperous? »»
The State Department has been approached for comments.
