The United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said Wednesday that the State Department is currently determining which foreign aid programs will receive exemptions from Trump’s administration plans to freeze the expenditure in USAID.
Rubio, at a press conference in Guatemala, said that the State Department is now working “to identify which programs should be specifically designated and, therefore, exempt” of the freezing orders of funds and suspension of works by President Donald Trump
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The Secretary of State also said that the State Department has communicated with USAID officials to help determine these exemptions.
The Trump government announced Monday that all USAID employees would be suspended and that international staff would be called again to work in view of the of Trump, which last month froze for 90 days most of foreign financing. The order, which Trump signed directly after his inauguration, gives Rubio the power to “give up the pause for specific programs.”
Rubio, during a five -day trip through Latin America, clarified during the conference that “there will be no financing” for programs that do not favor US interests.
According to a report From Associated Press, after Trump issued the order, Rubio exempts emergency food programs and military aid to Israel and Egypt. On Tuesday, AP reported that he agreed to continue spending funds on “humanitarian programs that provide vital medicines, medical services, food, refuge and subsistence assistance.”
CBS News reported That at a private meeting on Wednesday, Rubio told US diplomats in Guatemala that the United States plans to continue distributing foreign aid, but that the government needs to be able to defend which initiatives is financing abroad.
“The United States is not moving away from foreign aid. He is not doing it. We are going to continue providing foreign help and participating in programs, but they have to be programs that we can defend, ”said Rubio also before a group of employees at the United States Embassy in Guatemala City, according to a partial transcription obtained by CBS News the Wednesday.
“They have to be programs that we can explain and justify. Otherwise, we endanger foreign help, ”he added.
During a press conference last week, the White House Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, listed some of the initiatives financed by USAID, which he called “crazy priorities.” The list included 1.5 million dollars to promote the DEI in Serbia’s workforce, $ 70,000 for a “Dei” musical in Ireland, $ 47,000 for a “transgender opera” in Colombia and $ 32,000 for a “comic Transgender ”in Peru.
A Information sheet of the White House also lists 2 million dollars to finance “sex changes” and “LGBT activism” in Guatemala, as well as an unattainled amount of funds for the production of 3D printed contraceptives.
“I don’t know what you think, but as an American taxpayer, I don’t want my dollars to go to this trash, and I know that the American people either,” Leavitt added.
The United States Catholic Bishop Conference (USCCB), together with Catholic Relief Services, the Charitable arm of the USCCB, He has spoken against freezing of foreign financing and has published an action alert urging Catholics to contact their elected officials.
“We urgently need your help! Make them know the members of Congress that he is deeply concerned about the recent decision of the administration to stop work in almost all foreign assistance programs in the United States, “said the alert, and continued:” This freezing will be harmful to millions of millions of Our brothers and sisters who need access to humanitarian, health and development assistance that save their lives. ”
Translated and adapted by the ACI Press team. Originally published in CNA.
Low Elhabbal
Madalaine Elhabbal is a CNA journalist based in the Washington DC office in EWTN. He has published articles in Catholicvote and has also worked as a foreign language assistant in France. She is a graduate of Benedictine College.