US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday that the Trump administration is working to identify and exempt certain USAID programmes from sweeping stop-work orders, as part of President Donald Trump’s broader freeze on foreign aid.
The move comes after the administration placed all directly hired USAID employees globally on leave and recalled thousands of overseas personnel, following Trump’s directive last month to halt most US foreign assistance in line with his “America First” policy.
Trump and his aides have stated they aim to ensure that billions of dollars in US assistance, including humanitarian aid distributed worldwide, align with his “America First” policy. He tasked billionaire Elon Musk, who has accused USAID of being a criminal organisation without providing evidence, with scaling down the agency.
Since Trump’s freeze on 20 January, stop-work orders have halted much of the agency’s aid worldwide, leading to hundreds of contractors being laid off. However, Monday’s announcement listed some exceptions, including “specially designated programmes.”
“That language is deliberate, because we are now going to have to work … to identify which programmes should be specifically designated and therefore exempted from that order,” Rubio said during a press conference in Guatemala City.
The criteria for exemptions will depend on whether a programme furthers US national interests and aligns with them. “And those that do not will not continue,” Rubio added.
He repeated his accusation that USAID staff were not cooperating with the administration’s efforts to gather more information about the programmes. However, he noted that State Department staff working on similar programmes were providing insight to the administration.
“At the State Department … we got a really good insight, and that’s why, every single day, we are issuing waivers on the State Department programmes,” Rubio said. He did not provide details on what those waivers entailed.
Emergency food assistance was not included in the broad freeze on foreign aid. On 28 January, Rubio issued an additional waiver for life-saving assistance and outlined criteria for what would qualify.
However, the lack of detail in Trump’s order and the subsequent waivers have left aid groups confused about whether their work can continue.
On Wednesday, Reuters reported that the United States had halted purchases for foreign food aid programmes, despite a waiver for food assistance.
The freeze on purchases of wheat, soybeans, and other commodities produced by US farmers could hinder or halt the operations of organisations that provide millions of tonnes of food annually to help alleviate poverty in countries such as Madagascar, Tanzania, and Honduras, sources said.
