Rubio Freezes Almost All Foreign Aid, Except for Israel, Egypt, and Humanitarian Food Programs

America is putting a freeze on almost all current and new foreign aid programs until they can be reviewed and Secretary of State Rubio decides whether they should resume. The State Department issued a memo to American embassies that prevents new funding for foreign aid programs. It also states that there shall be a work-stop order issued for existing foreign assistance programs, according to Reuters. The memo states that “decisions whether to continue, modify, or terminate programs will be made” after Mr. Rubio conducts a review and decides whether to grant waivers for specific programs. There are a handful of exceptions to the freeze that Mr. Rubio has already granted waivers for, such as “foreign military financing for Israel and Egypt and administrative expenses, including salaries, necessary to administer foreign military financing.”He also approved waivers for emergency food assistance programs. The State Department did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication.President Trump signed an executive order on Monday that stated, “The United States foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values. They serve to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries.”“It is the policy of [the] United States that no further United States foreign assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States,” the order declared. The order directed a 90-day pause in aid as executive branch agencies evaluated “each foreign assistance program” their agency is responsible for. It also allowed for the heads of the agencies to grant waivers for funding of some programs to continue. A Christian humanitarian organization, World Relief, said American aid “saves lives and advances many American ideals,” and expressed respect for fiscal responsibility. The group’s vice president of international programs, Lanre Williams-Ayedun, said, “We hope that humanitarian and emergency disaster response assistance be exempted from this suspension.”

Rubio Freezes Almost All Foreign Aid, Except for Israel, Egypt, and Humanitarian Food Programs

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