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Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
White House proposal axes UN, NATO funds and halves State Department budget
The Trump administration is mulling a proposal that would slash the State Department budget by $27 billion – nearly in half – and shutter smaller embassies and consulates across the globe. The proposal calls for the elimination of funding for more than 20 international organizations, including the United Nations, NATO and the Organization of American States, a diplomatic source in possession of the document told Fox News Digital. The U.S. contributed around $13 billion to the United Nations in 2023 and around $3.5 billion to NATO. The proposed budget calls for allocating $2 billion for "America First" priorities. Those coffers could be used for "specific partners" like India and Jordan, according to the document, or broader priorities, like the South Pacific Tuna Treaty. However, a State Department spokesperson said Tuesday, "there is no final plan, final budget." Pete Marocco, Mastermind Behind Dismantling Of Usaid Projects, Leaves State Department The proposal is an early draft and has to pass layers of approval within the administration before it even gets to Congress. Congress can then take it as an outline but ultimately draw up its own budget figures. Read On The Fox News App The foreign service travel budget and benefits would be scaled back, and the Fulbright scholarship program would be eliminated. The document calls for a 2% reduction in diplomatic security, cuts to the inspector general's office and the closure of smaller embassies in countries such as the Maldives, Malta, Luxembourg and the Central African Republic. It also proposes a 54% cut to global public health funding, with carve-outs for malaria, HIV, and tuberculosis, and a complete elimination of international peacekeeping funds. When asked about the budget plan during a State Department briefing, spokesperson Tammy Bruce said, "Throughout the history of the United States, everyone has a budget plan and everyone has ideas for budgets. And every president has a budget plan and sends it to Congress. And then Congress either accepts it or they have their own ideas, which happens more often than not." "There is no final plan, final budget," she emphasized. The Trump administration has moved quickly to dismantle foreign aid, eliminating nearly 90% of USAID projects and merging the agency with the State Department and defunding "soft power" institutions like Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting networks. State Department Will Absorb Remaining Usaid Programming As Independent Agency Is Dismantled The White House budget is set to be transferred to Congress next month before the Republican-led House and Senate get to work on passing appropriations bills for each agency of government. Meanwhile, agencies are expected to present their own plans for reorganization to the White House this week, outlining what cuts they believe are necessary to further shrink the federal government. The State Department has not yet publicly detailed its plans for downsizing. As reports of the cuts emerged, Democrats warned that U.S. adversaries would fill the vacuum left by America around the world. The cuts "would leave our country alone and exposed and allow China and Russia to fill the vacuum made vacant by this administration," according to Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, N.H., top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee. "Why in the world would we cut funding for NATO at a moment when war is raging in Europe and security threats on the continent grow?" she added. It is not clear whether Secretary of State Marco Rubio endorses the initial proposal. "I want to hear from Secretary Rubio directly," said Sen. Brian Schatz, Hawaii, top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that handles State funding, calling the reports "deeply troubling."Original article source: White House proposal axes UN, NATO funds and halves State Department budget
New York Times
14-04-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Pete Marocco, Who Helped Gut Foreign Aid for Trump, Leaves State Department
Pete Marocco, who worked with Elon Musk's team to oversee the gutting of foreign aid and the dismantling of the main U.S. aid agency, has left the State Department, administration officials said on Monday. The abrupt departure comes in the middle of the department's efforts to merge the remnants of that aid group, the U.S. Agency for International Development, into the department by mid-August. Mr. Marocco had been acting as the head of foreign aid at the department and would have overseen the remaining aid operations, which amount to only a fraction of those active before President Trump took office. Mr. Marocco is expected to take another job in the administration, U.S. officials say. The State Department did not provide official comment on Mr. Marocco's departure. But a statement from the department's press office that was attributed to a 'senior administration official' praised Mr. Marocco for finding 'egregious abuses of taxpayer dollars' during his tenure. The statement provided no examples of such abuses. Mr. Marocco's critics said they planned to continue scrutinizing how he and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have gutted foreign aid. 'Pete Marocco's tenure brought chaos to U.S.A.I.D., reckless and unlawful policy to the State Department, and dismantled longstanding U.S. foreign policy,' Senator Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii, said in a statement, adding, 'His actions deprived millions of people around the world of lifesaving aid and jeopardized U.S. credibility with our partners.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump administration official to brief Congress on USAID, sources say
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Pete Marocco, deputy administrator-designate at the U.S. Agency for International Development, will meet with members of Congress on Wednesday to discuss foreign assistance, two sources familiar with the plan said on Monday. Marocco will use the "round table" with Democrats and Republicans on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee to provide an update on the review and reorganization of foreign aid by Republican President Donald Trump's administration. Thousands of staff have been put on leave and contractors terminated at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) since Trump began his second term in January, with Trump's billionaire adviser Elon Musk leading a push to shrink the federal government. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. Democratic members of Congress, and a few of Trump's fellow Republicans, have raised concerns that the foreign aid cuts could lead to hunger, illness and death around the globe, while also diminishing U.S. influence. Critics also say it is illegal for the administration to freeze aid and cut USAID without notifying and consulting Congress. Related lawsuits are making their way through the courts. Spokespeople for the U.S. State Department and Representative Brian Mast, the Florida Republican who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters
03-03-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Trump administration official to brief Congress on USAID, sources say
WASHINGTON, March 3 (Reuters) - Pete Marocco, deputy administrator-designate at the U.S. Agency for International Development, will meet with members of Congress on Wednesday to discuss foreign assistance, two sources familiar with the plan said on Monday. Marocco will use the "round table" with Democrats and Republicans on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee to provide an update on the review and reorganization of foreign aid by Republican President Donald Trump's administration. Thousands of staff have been put on leave and contractors terminated at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) since Trump began his second term in January, with Trump's billionaire adviser Elon Musk leading a push to shrink the federal government. Democratic members of Congress, and a few of Trump's fellow Republicans, have raised concerns that the foreign aid cuts could lead to hunger, illness and death around the globe, while also diminishing U.S. influence. Critics also say it is illegal for the administration to freeze aid and cut USAID without notifying and consulting Congress. Related lawsuits are making their way through the courts. Spokespeople for the U.S. State Department and Representative Brian Mast, the Florida Republican who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
'Radical change': Inside Trump's State Department takeover of USAID
Pete Marocco, the Trump administration official tasked with the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), at a private "listening session" held at the State Department earlier this month with dozens of aid groups -- some on the brink of financial collapse -- made a request prior to the start of the meeting, according to multiple people who were in the room: that everyone stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Inside the Loy Henderson Conference Room, representatives from aid organizations, industry groups, and foreign embassies -- reeling from the administration's sweeping freeze on foreign aid and the unraveling of USAID -- dutifully rose to their feet. The aid groups were there in the hope that Marocco would provide answers on the future of foreign assistance. After the Pledge, Marocco outlined the Trump administration's foreign aid plans, defending what he called a "total zero-based review," and arguing that some areas of foreign aid required "radical change" before taking questions from those in attendance, according to an audio recording of the private meeting obtained by ABC News. Multiple sources who attended the Feb. 13 meeting described the mood in the room as "deeply uncomfortable," saying that some of the attendees who were representing groups teetering on bankruptcy were left "traumatized" by the tone and the lack of specific details. During the discussion, a representative for World Vision, a global Christian humanitarian organization, asked Marocco about the impact of the freeze, noting that aid groups like his had been forced to bankroll U.S. government-funded programs with private money while awaiting overdue payments to be unpaused. "Will the spigot open? We've gotten waivers, but the PMS system isn't operating, so we're bankrolling U.S. government-funded programs out of private money," said Edward Brown, the vice president of World Vision, which provides poverty alleviation, disaster relief, and child welfare in nearly 100 countries. Marocco responded that following President Donald Trump's executive order halting foreign aid, some transactions were still being processed, prompting his team to "seize control" of the payment system to stop them -- leaving some groups without payments that, weeks later, had still had not arrived. MORE: Judge 'dissolves' order preventing Trump administration from overhauling USAID "As far as payment, one of the reasons that there have been problems with some of the payments is because, despite the president's executive order, despite the secretary's guidance, we still had nefarious actors in the agencies that were trying to push out hundreds of illegal payments," Marocco said. "And so we were able to seize control of that, stop them, take control of some of those people, and make sure that that money was not getting out the door." Marocco suggested that payments for organizations with existing contracts would resume the following Tuesday. "I feel confident we're going to have that pretty good by Tuesday of next week," he said. "That does not mean everybody's going to be caught up on everything that they want. But I think that our payment system will probably be fluid at that point." But Tuesday came and went, and many groups say they were still on the edge of bankruptcy -- prompting some to escalate their legal battle against the administration. On Monday, several USAID officials told ABC News that the payment system Marocco said would be fully restored was now technically operational, but that funding was still moving at an extremely slow pace and that many of the programs that were granted waivers to continue operations had still not received any money. USAID officials said the lack of funding has rendered many of the exempted programs inoperative. Some have resorted to using stockpiled resources, but because these programs have been cut off from federal support for weeks, most report that they have few funds left and don't anticipate they will be able to function for much longer, according to the officials. On Friday, after a federal judge cleared the way for the administration to proceed with its plan to pull thousands of USAID staffers off the job in the U.S. and around the world, the Trump administration moved forward with its effort to dismantle USAID, telling all but a fraction of staffers worldwide that they were on leave as of Monday. In a court-ordered affidavit filed last Tuesday, Marocco wrote that the agency "has authorized at least 21 payments" for grants, loans, and other foreign aid executed before Trump's inauguration "that are in total worth more than $250 million and are expected to be paid this week." As of Monday, it was not clear whether those payments had been made. When reached for comment, World Vision would not confirm to ABC News if payments had resumed, but told ABC News they were "complying with the executive order that pauses U.S. foreign assistance funding -- with potential waivers for emergency food and lifesaving humanitarian assistance -- for the next 90 days, while programs are reviewed for alignment with the current administration's foreign policy." In one tense moment during the listening session, a senior Democratic Senate staffer pressed Marocco on whether, once the payments resumed, they would include reimbursements for work incurred before the Jan. 24 freeze. "When payments resume, will they include work incurred before Jan. 24 in the payments forthcoming on Tuesday?" asked the staffer, who, when reached for comment by ABC News, asked not to be named our of fear of retribution. Marocco would not guarantee that government-contracted work that occurred before the freeze would be reimbursed, stating that the Trump administration would only cover "legitimate expenses" -- and noting that the administration's definition of a legitimate expense may differ from the groups in the room. "We will be looking at those," Marocco said. "What we consider to be legitimate may not be the same thing that other people consider to be legitimate, but we're going to." The staffer attempted to follow up, arguing that if the work had been incurred before the freeze, "it was legitimate at the time, right?" "We've moved on to the next person," Marocco responded. MORE: Aid groups tell judge that Trump's foreign aid pause has 'devastated' operations In his affidavit filed on Tuesday, Marocco conveyed the scope and status of the government's aid freeze. He wrote that, since Trump signed the executive order for a 90-day freeze, USAID had terminated nearly 500 grants and contracts. He said the agency "has not quantified" the total cost of those programs. As of Tuesday, the State Department had terminated more than 750 foreign assistance-funded grants and contracts of its own and had suspended nearly 7,000 more, Marocco wrote. Marocco used the meeting with the organizations to paint a dire picture of U.S. foreign aid, claiming it had "devolved into a fiscal cycle of dependency, of presumption, arrogance, and frankly, folly, that is just astonishing." He dismissed past reform efforts as ineffective, arguing that officials had merely "nibbled around the edges" rather than addressing what he saw as systemic failures. He insisted the review was necessary to force difficult conversations about "what these programs are actually doing" and whether they should continue at all. And he framed the overhaul as part of President Trump's broader effort to reshape Washington's approach to foreign assistance. "The American people deserve better. They require better. And President Trump has promised better," he said, criticizing aid decisions made "behind closed doors in Congress, in small groups in Washington, D.C." Marocco told those gathered that the administration's review extended beyond USAID and would encompass a range of federal agencies, including NASA, the Patent and Trademark Office, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), and the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM). "If there is a tax dollar that is going out to a foreigner, we need to gain control of that and understand what it is we're trying to achieve with our partners," he said. "We want to identify all of that. We want to fix it. That's the goal." Marocco made clear that the new foreign aid structure would be tied to Trump's political priorities. MORE: USAID worker blames 'stress and strain' of Trump's aid freeze for wife's pregnancy scare "With the Secretary of State, you will be in line," Marocco said. "The foreign assistance review, you will follow the president's foreign policy objectives. Or you will not be spending money abroad." He told the aid groups in the room they needed to justify their programs. "You need to think about convincing someone -- perhaps one of the women who is in my mother's Bible study," he said. "You need to think about somebody who's working at a McDonald's in Mississippi. You need to think about a grad student in Harlem." Marocco also told those gathered that if they wanted funding to continue, they needed to ask themselves, "Does it give the president real influence? Does this actually give the president national security and foreign policy influence abroad?" If it doesn't, he said, "I would say there is a slim chance that this actually is achieving anything that is worthwhile for American foreign policy." The Trump administration has received widespread condemnation from Democrats in Congress over its effort to slash foreign aid programs. "What Trump and Musk have done is not only wrong, it's illegal," Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia said earlier this month during a news conference outside USAID headquarters. "USAID was established by an act of Congress, and it can only be disbanded by an act of Congress. Stopping this will require action by the courts and for Republicans to show up and show courage and stand up for our country." The Feb. 13 meeting came as the legal battle over the aid freeze was escalating. Last week, a coalition of aid groups asked a federal judge to intervene, arguing that the freeze violated existing funding agreements and had caused "catastrophic" harm to their humanitarian missions. U.S. District Judge Amir Ali issued a temporary restraining order halting the freeze, but aid organizations said their funding remained locked, leaving them scrambling to keep operations afloat. Late Tuesday, Trump administration attorneys filed court papers arguing that their interpretation of the judge's order allows the freeze to largely remain in place. The aid groups fired back Wednesday, urging the court to enforce the ruling. "The court should not brook such brazen defiance of the express terms of its order," they wrote in the filing. Judge Ali, a Biden-era appointee, wrote Thursday that while Trump administration officials had "not complied" with his order, he would not hold them in contempt of court. But he warned those officials not to buck what he characterized as his "clear" directive to lift their "blanket freeze" on aid disbursements. 'Radical change': Inside Trump's State Department takeover of USAID originally appeared on
