The Trump administration’s executive order pausing foreign aid programs has sent crash waves through relief organizations such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which provides crucial vaccines, medicines and medical supplies to countries across the globe, according to reports.
Now, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has issued a waiver allowing an exemption for certain humanitarian assistance, according to a State Department memo reviewed by Reuters.
The waiver covers life-saving medicines, medical services, food, shelter and subsistence assistance, plus supplies and “reasonable administrative costs” necessary to deliver such assistance, according to the news service.
Rubio’s permission to resume such work comes after contractors and partners who work with USAID this week received orders to stop work immediately, according to a memo reviewed by Reuters. The mandate threatened to curb the stream of lifesaving medicines to USAID’s partner countries.
Over its 60-year history, USAID has “thwarted Ebola outbreaks, improved health safety standards, and dramatically slowed the spread of malaria, tuberculosis, and countless infectious diseases,” according to the agency’s website
The organization’s work was sent into limbo with the executive order. About 60 officials were recently put on paid leave in response to “several actions within USAID" that Trump administration officials believe were "designed to circumvent” the executive order, The New York Times reported on Monday, citing an internal email from USAID acting administrator Jason Gray.
President Donald Trump’s executive order on foreign aid, one of many inked on Inauguration Day, mandates a 90-day freeze in foreign assistance while the administration reviews programs for “programmatic efficiency and consistency with United States foreign policy.” Programs not in line with the administration’s priorities stand to be terminated.
The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a program dedicated to combating the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, was informed in a separate memo that the administration’s final decisions on aid programs could take up to 180 days, according to The New York Times.
Some aid organizations have consulted lawyers to prepare for a legal fight against the order, Politico reports.
Lawmakers such as Gregory Meeks (D-NY) and Lois Frankel (D-FL) expressed their concern in a congressional letter (PDF) to Rubio, pointing to the HIV treatments PEPFAR currently provides to 20.6 million people across 55 countries and the 37 million malaria drugs and mosquito nets the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) issues to 63 million people.
“These lives depend on an uninterrupted supply of medicines, and your pause in funding will cost lives,” the lawmakers wrote before the waiver was issued.
USAID provided $42.45 billion in foreign aid in 2023, according to the U.S. government’s foreign assistance dashboard. Healthcare commitments totaled more than $7 billion of the agency's spending figure.