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Special Alert – Trump Freezes Foreign Assistance Funding
Yesterday, President Trump signed an Executive Order entitled Reevaluating And Realigning United States Foreign Aid – The White House. Nichols Liu is in contact with USAID and the White House and will hold a Teams call to discuss today at 11:30 a.m. To join the meeting, click this link or use Meeting ID: 224 403 411 574 and Passcode: yL93uR3S.
The EO characterizes the current U.S. foreign aid industry and bureaucracy as misaligned with American interests and often promoting ideas in foreign countries that destabilize peace. Here are the highlights:
- 90 Day Pause: 90-day pause in United States foreign development assistance for assessment of programmatic efficiencies and consistency with United States foreign policy. This appears to apply to State, USAID, MCC, DFC and other departments and agencies implementing “foreign development assistance programs. The pause is on new obligations and disbursements to foreign countries and “implementing non-governmental organizations, international organizations (i.e., United Nations affiliates and other PIOs) and contractors…” This pause is for assessing the programmatic efficiencies and consistency with U.S. foreign policy.
- Program Reviews: It requires reviews of U.S. foreign assistance programs by relevant department and agency heads, following guidelines from the Secretary of State in consultation with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
- Determinations and Resumptions: It states that within 90 days, the responsible heads must determine whether to continue, modify, or cease each foreign assistance program. The funding can resume earlier, in the same or modified form, if a review is completed, and the program is deemed consistent with U.S. foreign policy.
- Approval Requirement: Any new foreign assistance programs and obligations must have approval from the Secretary of State or his designee, in consultation with the Director of OMB.
We look forward to discussing tomorrow.