Washington – The changes in the Trump administration have overturned the US agency accused of providing humanitarian aid to countries abroad, with dozens of senior license officials, thousands of fired contractors and a Freeze sweeping tax for billions of dollars in foreign assistance.
The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, defended the pause of foreign assistance on Thursday, saying that “the United States government is not a charity organization.”
Help organizations say that the funds freeze and a deep confusion about What programs financed by the United States should stop working? As a result, he has allowed them to agonize If they could continue to operate programs Like those who provide nutritional support for 24 hours to extremely malnourished babies and children, knowing that closing the doors means that many of those children would die.
Current and previous officials of the State Department and the United States International Development Agency say that employees were invited to submit applications to exempt certain programs for freezing foreign aid, which President Donald Trump imposed on January 20 and the State Department detailed how to execute January 24.
Three days later, at least 56 USAID senior employees of his career were abruptly placed on administrative license.
Three officials said that many of those who licensed were lawyers involved in determining which programs could qualify for exemptions, helping to write proposals and present those exemption requests, since they believed they had been invited to do.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. A Trump administration directive that help organizations interpret as a gag order have left them not willing to speak publicly for fear of permanently losing the funds of the United States.
In an internal memorandum on Monday about the changes of personnel, the new interim administrator of USAID, Jason Gray, said that the agency had identified “several actions within USAID that seem designed to avoid the executive orders of the president and the mandate of the people US”.
“As a result, we have placed several USAID employees on administrative license with full salary and benefits to an additional warning while completing our analysis of these actions,” Gray wrote.
A former high -ranking official of the USAID said that those who licensed had been helping the organizations of help navigating the “confusing process” to seek exemptions from the help for specific projects of salvation of life, such as continuing Clean water supplies for displaced people in war areas.
Others were identified as involved in the diversity, equity and inclusion program, which the administration has prohibited.
On Thursday, a USAID human resources officer who tried to reverse the action, saying that there was no justification for it, he put on permission, according to two of the officials who had seen internal emails and verified them as authentic. Propublic and Vox reporters for the first time reported the emails in X.
The State and the White House did not respond to messages that seek comments on personnel changes.
The new USAID leaders also abruptly fired the contractors who constituted approximately half of the workforce in the agency’s humanitarian office on Tuesday, eliminating them from the systems so that some disappeared in the midst of videoconferences, said the former senior official. Specific institutional services contractors do everything from administrative and travel support to subsidies processing and data analysis.
Personnel changes occurred three days after the State Department issued guidelines last Friday to implement Trump’s executive order that freezes foreign assistance for 90 days. The department says it is reviewing the money that the United States is spending to ensure that it adheres to the administration policy.
The guidelines initially exempted military aid to Israel and Egypt and emergency food programs, but also said that program administrators and implemers could request exemptions for programs that believe they would comply with administration standards.
On Tuesday, Rubio issued a broader exemption for programs that provide another “life salvation” assistance, including medicine, medical services, food and shelter, and again pointed out the possibility of exemptions. Rubio pointed out the exemptions extended in an interview on Thursday with the presenter of Siriusxm, Megyn Kelly.
“We don’t want to see people die and the like,” he said.
Rubio said there would be a program review by program which projects make “the United States safer, stronger or more prosperous.”
The step of closing programs financed by the United States during the 90 -day review meant that the United States was “receiving much more cooperation” from humanitarian assistance, development and security recipients, Rubio said. “Because otherwise you don’t get your money.”
The State Department said that since the freezing of aid entered into force, dozens of exemptions have approved, although many were returned because they did not include enough details. He said that requests for exemption from programs that cost “billions of dollars” have been received and are being reviewed.
The department did not specify how many exemption requests had been denied, but so far their shares had prevented more than $ 1 billion from being spent on programs and projects that “are not aligned with an agenda of America First.”
Even with the expansion of exemptions for the care of salvation of life, uncertainty surrounds what programs financed by the United States can continue legally. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world are without access to medicine and supplies and humanitarian clinics are not receiving medicine in time due to funding funds, aid organizations warn.
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AP Rebecca Santana reporter in Washington contributed.
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