Rubio overhauls USAID, says trade the priority over aid

The U.S. Agency for International Development cut all foreign assistance effective immediately, according to a Tuesday statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio. All foreign aid programs will be administered by the State Department to ensure they align with the Trump administration’s America First foreign policy, Rubio said. State Department oversight will deliver more accountability and efficiency from the previously independent agency, he added.

The Trump administration will foster trade instead of doling out aid, push for opportunity over dependency, and invest in people rather than give handouts, Rubio said. Americans are done paying taxes to fund failed governments in faraway lands, according to the statement. American assistance will now be targeted and time-limited, and favor nations with a demonstrated ability and willingness to help themselves, he added.

How are former USAID staffers reacting to the changes? The Friends of USAID on Monday posted a poetical tribute to the shuttered agency. “Every policy written with care, every life saved. Every child healed … it mattered,” former USAID health adviser Rabab Pettitt wrote.

Why is this necessary? Congress in 1961 passed the Foreign Assistance Act that created USAID to oversee economic assistance programs. The agency distributed billions of dollars each year but critics said that many of its programs were obscure or prioritized liberal causes with little oversight. Rep. Brian Mast, who leads the House Foreign Affairs Committee, earlier highlighted some USAID payouts he disagreed with including $500,000 to expand atheism in Nepal and $50,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia.

On Tuesday, Rubio claimed the agency hadn’t done anything noteworthy since the Cold War. USAID’s development objectives were rarely met, with regional instability and anti-American sentiment often worsening, according to his statement. Aid recipients should recognize that help comes from the American people rather than the unknown non-governmental organizations that USAID worked with, Rubio said. Instead of a rainbow of non-governmental organizations receiving U.S. funding, there will only be the American flag, he said.

Rubio also took issue with the charity-based model commonly used when implementing aid to countries in need. Leaders of developing nations become addicted to the aid flowing in rather than learning to develop resources for themselves, he said. Rubio cited feedback from countries formerly receiving USAID, who said that they preferred trade opportunities rather than being given straight resources.

The Trump administration is already implementing this vision and has seen great success in having international allies pay greater shares for projects around the world, according to Rubio. Officials are consolidating accounts to build more flexible funding pools, he said. Diplomats on the ground will work through regional bureaus, he said. Rubio also said that the new system will give America a stronger footing to counter China’s exploitative and strategic aid model.

Dig deeper: Read my report on USAID employees being told to destroy documents earlier this year amid court proceedings.