USAID’s Full Spending List: How Paying $153M in Bills Landed It in DOGE’s Crosshairs
Immediately after taking the reins of the US Administration, President Donald Trump had issued an Executive Order that all aid offered by the US Administration through USAID put on a freeze. However, the aids of President Trump and DOGE, the department created by Trump to minimize wasteful expenditure headed by Tesla Chief Elon Musk, feel that USAID officials are trying to bypass this aid freeze order.
On January 23, Trump administration officials uncovered that USAID had made a payment of $153 million for several expenses. Pete Morocco who is running the Agency from the State Department was not amused and asked why the funds were sent.
After Trump had frozen all foreign aid funds, Pete Marocco drafted a diplomatic cable which clearly underlined that even current foreign aid funds be frozen for three months till a fresh review.USAID officials were at pains to explain that the payments were made for work which was already completed by other organizations that were contracted by USAID. It also included employee salaries and the payments did not violate Trump’s foreign aid freeze. However, Pete Marocco was unconvinced.
The USAID has come into the cross hairs of the Department of Government Efficiency, a department set up by Trump to create a more efficient and smaller federal workforce.
What is USAID and what does it do?
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was created in 1960 by JF Kennedy to counter the influence of the Soviet Union during the peak of the Cold War. It has a workforce of 10,000 persons and has bases in more than 60 countries.
One of the crucial tasks which USAID does is to provide food in countries which are affected by famine. It also operates the gold-standard famine detection system which uses data analysis to predict regions of the globe which could be affected by food shortage or famine.
USAID also funds health initiatives like polio vaccinations in countries which still have the disease. It also helps to stop the spread of viral pathogens which can cause a pandemic.
The USAID has a budget of $40bn which constitutes 50% of all the international aid that the US provides to other nations. It constitutes 0.6% of the total US annual government spending of $6.75tn.
Most of the USAID funds are spent in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Europe and on humanitarian aid in Ukraine.
Trump has always been a vocal critic of foreign aid and underlined several instances when USAID had squandered funds for unprofitable ventures. He cited examples of how USAID doled a grant of $1.5m to an LGBTQ group in Serbia, $2.5m for electric vehicles in Vietnam and $6m for tourism in Egypt.
However, critics have questioned Trump’s logic and stated that the Egypt project – which began in 2019 under Trump, was meant for water, education and transportation aid projects for the North Sinai region.
However, there are also reports of how Musk and White House officials have peddled falsehoods on some of the USAID spending. Musk also shared a fake video on X about USAID funding the visit of a Hollywood actress to Ukraine, a claim that was later debunked.
Critics have also warned that the Aid freeze will put into jeopardy a number of projects for humanitarian causes like providing medication to the world’s poorest and installing clean water supplies
Also, Trump cannot just abolish the USAID by an executive order and would require an act of Congress where the Republicans have a slim majority. Trump’s actions could also face legal scrutiny by the courts.
Also Read: Elon Musk’s DOGE Clock Tracks $64.7 Billion in U.S. Savings as USAID Aid Freeze Takes Effect
