US cutting foreign aid budgets by more than 90%, Trump administration says

According to the State Department, the US has significantly reduced the budgets for international development and aid programs by 92 percent, or $ 54 billion, with multiyear contracts.

US President Donald Trump issued an executive order on January 20 that mandated a 90-day freeze on all US foreign aid, which would require senior political leaders to review after cutting funding for programs that did not support his “America First” agenda.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) partially targeted multiyear foreign assistance contracts, with the majority of those contracts being terminated while it was still in progress.

“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 $15.9bn.

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

“These commonsense eliminations will allow the bureaus, along with their contracting and grants officers, to focus on remaining programs, find additional efficiencies, and tailor subsequent programs more closely to the Administration’s America First priorities”, the State Department spokesperson said.