Marco Rubio, U.S. Secretary of State on Tuesday approved a new waiver for lifesaving humanitarian assistance in a memo sent to aid groups amid widespread confusion over which programs in the roughly $60 billion foreign aid budget would be exempt from the Trump administration’s freeze on U.S. assistance.
In the memo, obtained by The Washington Post, Rubio defined humanitarian assistance as “core lifesaving medicine, medical services, food, shelter, and subsistence assistance, as well as supplies and reasonable administrative costs as necessary to deliver such assistance.”
Programs will not be waived, he said, if they involve “abortions, family planning conferences … gender” or diversity programs, “transgender surgeries, or other nonlife saving assistance.”
“Implementers of existing lifesaving humanitarian assistance programs should continue or resume work if they have stopped,” the Tuesday memo said, but it added that “this resumption is temporary in nature, and except by separate waiver or as required to carry out this waiver, no new contracts shall be entered into.”
Humanitarian organizations apparently were left to determine for themselves what was covered by the waiver, and officials from several groups — who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid attracting undesired administration attention — said they were still seeking clarity on what is considered a “life-saving” activity. It was unclear, for example, whether the waiver extended to PEPFAR, the multibillion-dollar program for HIV/AIDS prevention and care in Africa.
The backtracking on the freezing of all foreign assistance administered by the State Department or the U.S. Agency for International Development came as the policy, announced in an earlier memo Friday distributed to U.S. diplomatic missions worldwide, caused significant chaos and outrage. “Stop-work” orders went out to USAID, contractors and nongovernmental aid organizations, many of which then issued termination orders to employees.
Last week, President Donald Trump issued an executive order declaring a 90-day pause in all foreign assistance. Rubio’s memo on Friday said that he had ordered a review to determine that programs were “not duplicate, are effective, and are consistent with President Trump’s foreign policy.”
Programs affected ranged from the International Committee of the Red Cross — which is bringing hostages out of Gaza and normally receives a quarter of its annual global budget from the United States for all of its activities — to organizations that provide famine relief and medical care, and land mine removal programs in conflict zones around the world.
Many USAID contractors had already been ordered to stop working, effective immediately, according to emails reviewed by The Post. One order was sent late Monday to contractors working with a program designed to provide technical and professional support services for maternal and child health.
The Tuesday memo stipulated that Migration and Refugee Assistance (MRA) may only be used to support lifesaving activities “and for repatriation of third country nationals to their country of origin or safe-third-country.”
Humanitarian officials said they had been bracing in the months leading up to Trump’s second term for potential reviews or reductions of some U.S. global assistance or cooperation programs. But officials said they were blindsided by the scope of the sweeping foreign aid suspension when Rubio’s initial memo was leaked on Friday.
A number of organizations that receive all or a significant amount of their funding from the United States said they have already shut down operations and terminated employees.
“I got my termination letter this morning,” said one USAID employee, noting that photographs of aid workers in the field — handing out food, providing medical care — that lined the walls of an agency building in Washington had been removed overnight.
“Some people were on unpaid parental leave, some just started new jobs” at the agency and were told not to come back, the employee said.
Neither the original order nor the revision issued Tuesday offered specific instructions on how to obtain additional waivers, other than contacting the “Director of Foreign Assistance at the Department of State.” No one has been officially named to this position by Rubio or the Trump administration.
Initial exemptions had been provided only for military assistance administered by the State Department to Israel and Egypt.
When asked for clarification of the waiver policy on Tuesday, before Rubio’s new waiver was issued, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said at her first official briefing that the withholding of money already appropriated by Congress had been designated lawful by the office of the White House counsel and that the Office of Management and Budget had provided guidance.
The “Department of Government Efficiency,” the new White House commission headed by tech billionaire Elon Musk, along with OMB, she said, found that “there was about to be 50 million taxpayer dollars that went out the door to fund condoms in Gaza. That is a preposterous waste of taxpayer money.”
Neither the White House nor the State Department provided clarification about a condom program, and no such item could be immediately located in funding appropriations. The White House referred queries to a Fox News Digital report that referenced a 2020 story in the Israeli media saying that “scores of condoms” were being used by militants to create bomb-carrying balloons that the wind could carry into southern Israel.
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce also provided some examples to reporters Tuesday of what she described as “egregious funding,” including “$102,236,000 to fund the International Medical Corps” that staffs hospitals and provides humanitarian aid in Gaza, “$612,000 to fund technical assistance for family planning in Latin America,” and an additional half-dozen other programs of varying cost.
“The American people have demanded an end to policies that have harmed our nation for far too long and expect a return to common sense initiatives and priorities. … President Trump stated clearly that the United States is no longer going to blindly dole out money with no return for the American people,” Bruce said in a statement.
The transactional approach to foreign assistance constitutes a break with decades of aid policy in which America’s largesse, in keeping with its massive economy, has been considered a moral obligation and worthwhile investment in promoting stability and cooperation with the United States.
Some groups responded to the initial order with tempered optimism that the State Department review would not affect their work long term. Several that suspended operations in Vietnam noted that their work to mitigate the ongoing dangers of U.S.-dropped bombs and herbicide is a cornerstone of a budding economic and security partnership between Washington and Hanoi. That work is crucial, they said, as the United States seeks to build relationships in the region to counter China.
Humanitarian officials also noted that the freeze would, in some cases, mean that aid groups would no longer be able to pay security guards typically employed in conflict zones, raising questions about staff safety.
Several officials at aid organizations described what one called a “free-speech crackdown,” pointing to messaging from some government offices asking them to refrain from public communication about the pause in aid. Washington Post.