Marco Rubio called for an immediate end to all US foreign aid
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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered an immediate freeze on all current foreign aid programs to review whether they are in line with President Donald Trump’s policies, according to an internal cable seen by the Financial Times.
The move would affect international aid contracts administered by Washington, through the US Agency for International Development, worth billions of dollars and affecting a wide range of countries around the world.
In a cable to the State Department and USAID on Friday, Rubio said all new foreign aid payments were to be suspended, and that contractors and aid officials “must immediately issue a stop-work order.” . . Until such time as the Secretary determines after review.”
The review period will last up to 85 days and will leave the fate of hundreds of US foreign aid contracts, which were worth more. 70 billion dollars in 2022 A fiscal year, it could be in limbo for three months.
Rubio also ordered that all foreign aid given by any agency or department be approved by the Secretary of State through the review of all international aid programs in his office.
Rubio’s cable would implement an executive order signed by Trump on his first day in office. In it, the president called for an aid freeze, calling the “foreign aid industry and bureaucracy” “unaligned with American interests and, in many cases, inconsistent with American values.”
In the first days of his second term in the White House, Trump has taken aggressive steps to reorient and reorient all US government agencies to implement his policies.
Scientific agencies such as the National Institutes of Health have temporarily suspended aid operations pending a review by the new administration, which worried researchers.
There are some exceptions to Rubio’s aid freeze order, including “approved grants” for military financing to Israel and Egypt, as well as foreign emergency food aid. But the cable said that in addition to terminating new and existing contracts, US government agencies, including USAID, should stop publishing proposals for foreign aid projects.
Earlier this week, Rubio said in a statement that Trump had asked Trump to “put our core national interests on the mission of the US foreign policy leader,” including curbing mass immigration and repealing climate policies that “weaken” the United States.
“Every dollar we spend, every program we support, and every policy we pursue must be proven by answering three simple questions: Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Will it make America more prosperous?
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