What do you think? Should the U.S. government provide humanitarian assistance abroad? Why or why not?
In The Morning newsletter “Trump’s Foreign Aid Freeze Has Created Chaos. Here Is What to Know.” (Feb. 9), Yonette Joseph, Malika Khurana and Adam Pasick write about Mr. Trump’s executive order freezing most U.S. foreign aid for 90 days:
The Trump administration ordered thousands of the agency’s workers to return to the United States from overseas, put them on indefinite administrative leave and shifted oversight of the agency to the State Department.
On Thursday, the administration also announced plans to gut the agency’s staff, reducing U.S.A.I.D.’s work force of more than 10,000 to perhaps a few hundred. On Friday, a judge temporarily blocked elements of the Trump administration’s plan to shut down the agency, though the aid freeze remains in effect.
Critics say Mr. Trump’s executive order will cause a humanitarian catastrophe and undermine America’s influence, reliability and global standing.
In the article “What Is U.S.A.I.D., and Why Do Trump and Musk Want to Close It?” (Feb. 3), Noah Weiland and Stephanie Nolen explain the role of the agency, its costs and why Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency wants to close it:
What does U.S.A.I.D. do?
The scope of U.S.A.I.D.’s work is extensive: war relief in Ukraine, peace-building in Somalia, disease surveillance in Cambodia, vaccination efforts in Nigeria, H.I.V. prevention in Uganda and maternal health assistance in Zambia, among a wide range of other programs. The agency has helped to contain major outbreaks of Ebola and other hemorrhagic fevers in recent years.
In some regions, it supplies food, shelter and access to clean water that can be the difference between life and death. In others, it supports global networks of disease surveillance and biomedical research that help local populations and also protect Americans.
“We built out a network of 50-plus countries on every continent, developing what I’ve called the world’s immune system — an ever-accelerating capacity to prevent, detect and more rapidly respond to pandemic threats,” Dr. Atul Gawande, a senior U.S.A.I.D. official in the Biden administration, said last month in an address ahead of Mr. Trump’s inauguration. Mortality rates in countries aided by U.S.A.I.D. drop faster than in other places, Dr. Gawande added.
Global health experts say that U.S.A.I.D. has practiced a form of soft power around the world, allowing the United States to keep a friendly presence in developing nations, including countries that are key strategic allies.
What does the work cost?
While the agency’s foreign assistance programs are sweeping, their cost amounts to a tiny portion of the federal budget.
The U.S.A.I.D. has a budget of roughly $23 billion, part of a larger annual federal aid budget approved by Congress. The agency spent about $38.1 billion in fiscal year 2023, making up less than 1 percent of the federal budget. That makes it a relatively modest target for savings by Mr. Musk’s cost-cutting task force, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
And as for why Elon Musk and Republicans like Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, are targeting the agency, the writers explain:
Conservative critics have long questioned the value of foreign aid programs.
Mr. Rubio on Monday faulted agency employees for “deciding that they’re somehow a global charity separate from the national interest or taxpayer dollars.”
