As President Donald Trump's freeze on U.S.-funded international aid and development throughout the world continues to result in thousands of furloughs, layoffs, and program shutdowns, the U.S. Agency for international Development's website fell down without explanation on Saturday.
Concerned that trump could be moving toward dismantling USAID as a separate organization and incorporating it into the State Department, congressional Democrats publicly criticized the trump administration. Democrats assert that USAID's mission is essential to national security and that trump lacks the legal power to abolish an independent agency that receives funding from Congress.
Trump and Republicans in congress claim that a large portion of development and international aid initiatives are inefficient. Programs that they claim further leftist social goals are singled out.
Two weeks after the administration cut down billions of dollars in U.S. aid for development, security, and humanitarian causes, there is concern that the administration may take even more severe action against USAID.
The united states is by far the biggest humanitarian aid giver in the world. Compared to several other nations, it spends a lesser percentage of its budget—less than 1%—on international aid.
Concerns raised by senators and others that trump could be considering ending USAID as an independent agency were not addressed by administration officials on Saturday.
In order to combat Soviet influence, President john F. Kennedy established it during the height of the Cold War. Today, USAID is in the forefront of American efforts to counter China's expanding power, which has its own prosperous "Belt and Road" foreign assistance initiative.
Kennedy signed an executive order creating USAID as an autonomous agency and the Foreign Assistance Act, which congress ratified in 1961.
In chat groups on friday and saturday, USAID employees provided updates on the agency's situation, including whether the agency's flag and banners were still flying outside of the agency's Washington offices. They were as of late saturday afternoon.
Democratic senator Chris Murphy wrote on X that presidents cannot use executive order to abolish government agencies that congress has authorized and that trump was about to "double down on a constitutional crisis."
"That's what a despot - who wants to steal the taxpayers' money to enrich his billionaire cabal - does," Murphy stated.
Billionaire Elon Musk supported statements on his X website advocating for the dissolution of USAID as part of Trump's attempt to reduce the size of the federal government in the interest of efficiency.
Musk said, "Live by executive order, die by executive order," in a tweet on USAID.
On january 20, Trump's first day in office, he imposed an unprecedented 90-day block on foreign assistance. The order shut down thousands of projects worldwide and forced many thousands to go on furloughs or layoffs. It was a more severe interpretation of Trump's freeze order on january 24 that was prepared by Peter Marocco, a returning political appointee from Trump's first term.
Since then, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has taken action to continue more emergency initiatives that are only focused on saving lives while the freeze is in effect. assistance organizations claim that uncertainty over whether initiatives are still permitted to run is causing stagnation among international assistance agencies.
In his first public remarks on the subject, Rubio stated thursday that USAID's projects were being examined to remove those that were not in the national interest of the united states, but he made no mention of doing away with the organization as a whole.
According to Rubio, the U.S. was "getting a lot more cooperation" from beneficiaries of security, development, and humanitarian help as a result of the 90-day review period during which U.S.-funded projects were stopped.
Concerned that trump could be moving toward dismantling USAID as a separate organization and incorporating it into the State Department, congressional Democrats publicly criticized the trump administration. Democrats assert that USAID's mission is essential to national security and that trump lacks the legal power to abolish an independent agency that receives funding from Congress.
Trump and Republicans in congress claim that a large portion of development and international aid initiatives are inefficient. Programs that they claim further leftist social goals are singled out.
Two weeks after the administration cut down billions of dollars in U.S. aid for development, security, and humanitarian causes, there is concern that the administration may take even more severe action against USAID.
The united states is by far the biggest humanitarian aid giver in the world. Compared to several other nations, it spends a lesser percentage of its budget—less than 1%—on international aid.
Concerns raised by senators and others that trump could be considering ending USAID as an independent agency were not addressed by administration officials on Saturday.
In order to combat Soviet influence, President john F. Kennedy established it during the height of the Cold War. Today, USAID is in the forefront of American efforts to counter China's expanding power, which has its own prosperous "Belt and Road" foreign assistance initiative.
Kennedy signed an executive order creating USAID as an autonomous agency and the Foreign Assistance Act, which congress ratified in 1961.
In chat groups on friday and saturday, USAID employees provided updates on the agency's situation, including whether the agency's flag and banners were still flying outside of the agency's Washington offices. They were as of late saturday afternoon.
Democratic senator Chris Murphy wrote on X that presidents cannot use executive order to abolish government agencies that congress has authorized and that trump was about to "double down on a constitutional crisis."
"That's what a despot - who wants to steal the taxpayers' money to enrich his billionaire cabal - does," Murphy stated.
Billionaire Elon Musk supported statements on his X website advocating for the dissolution of USAID as part of Trump's attempt to reduce the size of the federal government in the interest of efficiency.
Musk said, "Live by executive order, die by executive order," in a tweet on USAID.
On january 20, Trump's first day in office, he imposed an unprecedented 90-day block on foreign assistance. The order shut down thousands of projects worldwide and forced many thousands to go on furloughs or layoffs. It was a more severe interpretation of Trump's freeze order on january 24 that was prepared by Peter Marocco, a returning political appointee from Trump's first term.
Since then, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has taken action to continue more emergency initiatives that are only focused on saving lives while the freeze is in effect. assistance organizations claim that uncertainty over whether initiatives are still permitted to run is causing stagnation among international assistance agencies.
In his first public remarks on the subject, Rubio stated thursday that USAID's projects were being examined to remove those that were not in the national interest of the united states, but he made no mention of doing away with the organization as a whole.
According to Rubio, the U.S. was "getting a lot more cooperation" from beneficiaries of security, development, and humanitarian help as a result of the 90-day review period during which U.S.-funded projects were stopped.
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