US cuts Overseas Development Program Budgets

On his first day in office, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order demanding a freeze on all U.S. foreign aid for 90 days. The pause aimed to allow the administration to review overseas spending with an eye to gutting programs not aligned with Trump's "America First" agenda.

The review in part targeted multi-year foreign assistance contracts awarded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), with the vast majority eliminated during its course.

"At the conclusion of a process led by USAID leadership, including tranches personally reviewed by Secretary [Marco[ Rubio, nearly 5,800 awards with $54 billion in value remaining were identified for elimination as part of the America First agenda, a 92 percent reduction," a State Department spokesperson said in a statement.

The review also looked at more than 9,100 grants involving foreign assistance, valued at more than $15.9 billion.

At the conclusion of the review, 4,100 grants worth almost $4.4 billion were targeted to be eliminated, a 28 percent reduction.

Programs that were not cut included food assistance, life-saving medical treatments for diseases like HIV and malaria and support for countries including Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela and Lebanon, among others, the spokesperson said.

On Feb. 25, a federal judge gave the Trump administration less than two days to unfreeze all aid, after a previous court order issued nearly two weeks earlier went ignored.

Source: HDN