[FoxNews] More than 5,200 foreign assistance programs cut under Trump's government efficiency initiative while Democrats protest
USAID will no longer send foreign assistance across the globe, with the State Department taking over any such programs that President Donald Trump's administration wishes to continue, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Tuesday.
Rubio made the announcement in a Tuesday statement, saying USAID had for decades failed to ensure the programs it funded actually supported America's interests. The State Department will take over foreign assistance programs beginning July 1, he said.
"Beyond creating a globe-spanning NGO industrial complex at taxpayer expense, USAID has little to show since the end of the Cold War. Development objectives have rarely been met, instability has often worsened, and anti-American sentiment has only grown," Rubio wrote.
"This era of government-sanctioned inefficiency has officially come to an end. Under the Trump Administration, we will finally have a foreign funding mission in America that prioritizes our national interests. As of July 1st, USAID will officially cease to implement foreign assistance. Foreign assistance programs that align with administration policies—and which advance American interests—will be administered by the State Department, where they will be delivered with more accountability, strategy, and efficiency," he continued.
The move comes after the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) gutted USAID as part of Trump's effort to remove waste, fraud and abuse from the federal government.
The agency came under fire for many funding choices, including allocating $1.5 million for a program that sought to "advance diversity, equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities" and a $70,000 program for a "DEI musical" in Ireland.
As a result, Rubio announced on March 11 that the State Department had completed a six-week review and would cancel more than 80% of USAID programs — cutting roughly 5,200 of USAID's 6,200 programs. |