President Trump on Monday signed an executive order suspending any new U.S. foreign development assistance for three months, and directed a review of foreign assistance programs to ensure they line up with his America First foreign policy.
The order pausing funding follows an executive order directing the State Department to implement an “America First foreign policy,” although the specifics of that policy are not defined.
Trump is directing department and agency heads with responsibility for U.S. foreign development assistance programs to immediately pause new obligations and disbursements of development assistance funds to foreign countries; non-governmental organizations, international organizations or contractors.
The president calls for a review of these programs for “programmatic efficiency” and to determine whether they are consistent with U.S. foreign policy. The Office of Management and Budget will “enforce this pause,” the executive order states.
The executive order includes a waiver for the secretary of State to waive the rules for “specific programs.”
It also allows funding to resume earlier than 90 days if a review is conducted and the secretary of State or his designee, in consultation with director of OMB, decide to continue the program in the same or in a modified form. .
The measure encroaches on the legislative branch’s control over spending, which could create friction in Congress.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was confirmed unanimously by the Senate on Monday, affirmed Congress’s “power of the purse” in appropriations.
“The power of the purse still resides with the Congress. Now maybe if confirmed, moving towards the executive branch, I’ll forget that lesson a little bit,” he joked during his confirmation hearing, “I hope not. But ultimately I still recognize and understand that the power of the purse is with Congress and it’s an incredibly important power.”
At the same time, there have been some critics in Congress of how some foreign aid is distributed.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast (R-Fl.), for example, has put U.S. assistance in the crosshairs. He criticized U.S. funding for NGO programs in Ecuador that have drag performers read stories, and the discovery of funding for an organization promoting atheism in Nepal.
Republicans last week were outraged to learn that nurses in Mozambique, receiving funding through the anti-Aids program in Africa PEPFAR, had performed an estimated 21 abortions, in violation of federal law surrounding the program.
