United States (U.S.) Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Tuesday that the United States (U.S.) Agency for International Development (USAID) will officially cease implementing foreign aid on July 1st, and the aid program will be transferred to the State Department.
“Foreign aid programs that align with the administration’s policies and promote U.S. interests will be administered by the State Department, where they will be implemented with greater accountability, strategy, and efficiency,” Rubio stated in a press release.
“Every public servant has an obligation to U.S. citizens to ensure that all taxpayer-funded programs advance the interests of our nation,” he said.
He stated that USAID’s results, with spending exceeding 715 billion dollars over decades, have fallen significantly short of this standard.
Rubio believes that USAID has created a global industrial complex of non-governmental organizations at the taxpayers’ expense, which, since the end of the Cold War, has little to show for itself.
He claims that development goals have rarely been met, instability has often worsened, and anti-U.S. sentiment has increased.
“This era of inefficiency sanctioned by the government is officially over,” said Rubio.
This move follows comprehensive efforts to dismantle USAID during U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term, including the cancellation of most contracts, the elimination of thousands of jobs, and placing nearly the agency’s entire global workforce on administrative leave.
Rubio previously announced that 83 percent of USAID’s programs were canceled after a six-week review.
USAID was established in 1961 and managed more than 40 billion dollars in fiscal year 2023.
Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a package that includes 8.3 billion dollars returned from this agency.
