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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered an immediate halt to work on all current foreign aid programs pending a review of whether they are consistent with President Donald Trump's policies, according to internal cable Times Faten.
The move will affect international aid contracts administered by Washington, including through the US Agency for International Development, worth billions of dollars and countries that extend around the world.
In a cable sent to the State Department and USAID on Friday, Rubio said it's all new Foreign aid Payments were to be suspended, and contracting officers and grants officers needed to “immediately issue stop orders . . . until such time as the Secretary, after review, determines.”
The review period is expected to last up to 85 days, leaving the fate of hundreds of foreign aid contracts to us, which were more $70 billion in 2022 The fiscal year, perhaps in limbo for up to three months.
Rubio also ordered that all foreign aid through any agency or department be approved by the Secretary of State, focusing all international aid programs within his office.
Cable Rubio implements an executive order Trump signed on his first day in office. In it, the president viewed the “foreign aid industry and bureaucracy” as “inconsistent with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values,” and asked for the aid to be suspended.
In the early days of his second term in the White House, Trump took aggressive steps to reshape and redirect all agencies of the US government to implement his policies.
Scientific agencies such as the National Institutes of Health have also put the work on hold pending review by the new administration, worrying researchers.
There are some exceptions to Rubio's aid freeze order, among them “approved waivers” for military funding to Israel and Egypt, as well as foreign emergency food aid. But Cable said that in addition to stopping new and existing contracts, US government agencies, including USAID, should stop publishing foreign aid project proposals.
Earlier this week, Rubio said in a statement that Trump had asked him to “place our core national interest as the guiding mission of American foreign policy,” saying that among his top priorities were curbing mass immigration and undoing climate policies that “weaken” America.
“Every dollar we spend, every program we fund, and every policy we pursue must be justified with the answer to three simple questions: Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America more prosperous?”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been contacted for comment.
