USAID’s extremely uncertain future risks global aid efforts, especially in Ukraine

The future of US foreign aid is at a moment of extreme uncertainty after the Trump administration announced it has terminated more than 90% of USAID’s foreign assistance awards.

The future of US foreign aid is at a moment of extreme uncertainty after the Trump administration announced it has terminated more than 90% of the US Agency for International Development (USAID)’s foreign assistance awards. The news, disclosed in a court filing Wednesday, comes amid the administration’s efforts to dismantle USAID. Even before the announcement to layoff approximately 2,000 of the agency’s employees and to put the majority of its remaining staff members on leave, the agency’s global aid efforts had largely stalled due to a sudden and sweeping freeze on existing and future foreign assistance. In January, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a memo directing that suspension, with only a few exceptions for 90 days, to review foreign aid programs — leading to widespread confusion, grinding humanitarian work around the world to a halt, and severely impacting humanitarian organizations. Rubio said last week that the State Department has “issued over 250 waivers” to allow work to continue, but there is little evidence that those waivers have had an impact on the ground. Now, the administration said it has completed the review and terminated approximately 5,800 USAID awards and 4,100 State Department awards were terminated, the court filing said.