By Humeyra Pamuk, Maggie Michael and Lena Masri
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration urged U.S. Company for Worldwide Growth (USAID) staff to affix the hassle to rework how Washington allocates assist all over the world in keeping with Trump’s “America First” coverage. It threatened “disciplinary motion” for any workers ignoring the administration’s orders.
A sharply-worded memo despatched on Saturday to greater than 10,000 workers at USAID supplied additional steerage to Friday’s “stop-work” directive that successfully put a sweeping freeze on U.S. international assist worldwide. The memo, reviewed by Reuters, laid out expectations for the workforce on the way to obtain Trump’s targets.
“We’ve got a duty to assist the President in attaining his imaginative and prescient,” Ken Jackson, assistant to the administrator for administration and sources wrote within the inner memo, titled “Message and Expectation to the Workforce.”
“The President has given us an amazing alternative to rework the way in which we method international help for many years to return,” the memo stated. Reuters confirmed the authenticity of the memo with a number of sources.
Since taking workplace final week, Trump has taken steps towards fulfilling his vow to remake a federal paperwork he believes was hostile to him throughout his 2017-2021 presidency. He has reassigned or fired a whole bunch of federal staff in simultaneous strikes in opposition to a swath of companies.
Hours after taking workplace, Trump ordered a 90-day pause in international assist to evaluate if it was aligned together with his international coverage priorities. On Friday, the State Division issued a stop-work order worldwide even for present and appropriated help, calling into query billions of {dollars} of life-saving assist.
The US is the biggest single donor of assist globally. In fiscal 12 months 2023, it disbursed $72 billion in help.
USAID and the White Home Nationwide Safety Council (NSC) didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon this story.
Friday’s memo shocked the humanitarian teams and communities conducting improvement assist throughout the globe. Whereas the scope of the directive seems far-reaching, uncertainties linger over how it is going to be carried out.
The memo on Saturday supplied solely partial readability.
The pause on international assist spending means “an entire halt,” it stated. The one exceptions are for emergency humanitarian meals help and for presidency officers returning to their responsibility stations. Waivers permitting supply of emergency meals throughout the evaluate interval would require “detailed data and justification.”
The memo stated additional waivers would require two layers of approval – one from USAID management and one other by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“Any waiver have to be completely justified to show that the precise help for which the waiver is sought is important for lifesaving functions, can’t be carried out by present U.S. direct rent workers, or would in any other case pose vital dangers to nationwide safety,” the memo stated.
All international help packages will bear “complete evaluate” throughout the pause in spending, the memo says. “It is very important emphasize that it’s not enterprise as common. Each program will probably be completely scrutinized.”
Saturday’s directive additionally banned any communications exterior the company, together with between USAID and the State Division, until they’re accredited by the previous’s entrance workplace.
“Failure to abide by this directive, or any of the directives despatched out earlier this week and within the coming weeks, will lead to disciplinary motion,” it stated.
Individually, USAID despatched contractors a discover ordering them to “instantly subject stop-work orders” and to “amend, or droop present awards.”
Humanitarian organizations and different donors are scrambling to know how the directive will influence life-saving operations in nations throughout the globe. It’s too quickly to inform whether or not or what particular companies should be paused, they stated.
In 2024, the U.S. supplied 42% of all humanitarian assist tracked by the United Nations.
