Home Economy Economic Activity Rubio announces termination of 83% of USAID contracts

Rubio announces termination of 83% of USAID contracts

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Associated Press

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03/10/2025

Trump Foreign Aid — U.S. SECRETARY of State Marco Rubio visits the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Rubio is signaling that the Trump administration has finished its six-week dismantling of the six-decade-old U.S. Agency for International Development. Rubio made the announcement Monday in a post on X. Rubio says he will move the 18% of aid and development programs that survived the purge under the State Department. ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO/ EVELYN HOCKSTEIN

WASHINGTON (AP) – Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday the Trump administration had finished its six-week purge of programs of the six-decade-old U.S. Agency for International Development, and said he would move the 18% of aid and development programs that survived under the State Department. Rubio made the announcement in a post on X. It

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WASHINGTON (AP) – Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday the Trump administration had finished its six-week purge of programs of the six-decade-old U.S. Agency for International Development, and said he would move the 18% of aid and development programs that survived under the State Department. Rubio made the announcement in a post on X. It marked one of his relatively few public comments on what has been a historic shift away from U.S. foreign aid and development, executed by Trump political appointees at State and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency teams. Rubio in the post thanked DOGE and "our hardworking staff who worked very long hours to achieve this overdue and historic reform" in foreign aid. President Donald Trump on Jan. 20 issued an executive order directing a freeze of foreign assistance funding and a review of all of the tens of billions of dollars of U.S. aid and development work abroad. Trump charged that much of foreign assistance was wasteful and advanced a liberal agenda. Rubio's social media post Monday said that review was now "officially ending," with some 5,200 of USAID's 6,200 programs eliminated. Those programs "spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States," Rubio wrote. "In consultation with Congress, we intend for the remaining 18% of programs we are keeping ... to be administered more effectively under the State Department," he said. Democratic lawmakers and others call the shutdown of congressionally-funded programs illegal, saying such a move requires Congress' approval. How this affected Edesia Inc. in Rhode Island was unclear. Edesia President Navyn Salem told Providence Business News Monday the organization still has a contract with USAID. "We have had our USAID contract cancelled twice now and brought back. So this would be nothing new. But while we haven't gotten paid yet, our USAID contracts still appear to be totally fine as of today," said Edesia President Navyn Salem. In May 2024, USAID announced it was allocating $200 million in federal funds for the nonprofit. But those payments stopped coming in November and the humanitarian aid organization hasn’t received a dime from the government agency in upwards of four months. On Jan. 28, Edesia had to stop production of its flagship product, Plumpy’Nut – a peanut-based paste that has saved over 25 million lives in 65 countries – for several days after USAID issued a stop-work order for all of its contractors following Trump’s executive order freezing foreign aid. The stop-work order was rescinded on Feb. 6 and deliveries resumed after a U.S. federal judge told the Trump administration to restore foreign aid funding that had been paused pending a 90-day review. However on March 3, Musk confirmed that Edesia Inc. would receive a payment that week. However, that money has yet to arrive. The Trump administration has given almost no details on which aid and development efforts abroad it spared Monday as it mass-emailed contract terminations to aid groups and other USAID partners by the thousands within days earlier this month. The rapid pace, and the steps skipped in ending contracts, left USAID supporters challenging whether any actual program-by-program reviews had taken place. Aid groups say even some life-saving programs that Rubio and others had promised to spare got the termination notices, such as emergency nutritional support for starving children and drinking water serving sprawling camps for families uprooted by war in Sudan. Republicans broadly have made clear they want foreign assistance that would promote a far narrower interpretation of U.S. national interests going forward. The State Department in one of multiple lawsuits it is battling over its rapid shutdown of USAID had said earlier this month it was killing more than 90% of USAID programs. Rubio gave no explanation for why his number was lower. The dismantling of USAID that followed Trump's order upended decades of policy that humanitarian and development aid abroad advanced U.S. national security by stabilizing regions and economies, strengthening alliances and building goodwill. In the weeks after Trump's order, one of his appointees and transition team members, Pete Marocco, and Musk pulled USAID staff around the world off the job through forced leaves and firings, shut down USAID payments overnight and terminated aid and development contracts by the thousands. Contractors and staffers running efforts ranging from epidemic control to famine prevention to job and democracy training stopped work. Aid groups and other USAID partners laid off tens of thousands of their workers in the U.S. and abroad. Lawsuits say the sudden shutdown of USAID has stiffed aid groups and businesses that had contracts with it of billions of dollars. The shutdown has left many USAID staffers and contractors and their families still overseas, many of them awaiting U.S.-paid back payments and travel expenses back home. Providence Business News reporter Matt McNulty contributed to this report.