Washington: The U.S. government has confirmed it will shut down U.S. international aid companies by July 2025 after President Donald Trump’s efforts to cut foreign aid spending, a move that has attracted widespread criticism.
“Today, the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have notified Congress of the intent to reorganize, which will involve reorganizing certain USAID functions in the department on July 1, 2025,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement Friday.
He said the State Department also plans to “terminate the remaining U.S. Agency for International Development functions that do not match administrative priorities.”
“Unfortunately, USAID deviated from its original mission a long time ago,” he said. “Therefore, the benefits are too small and the costs are too high.”
After taking office in January, Republican President Donald Trump signed an executive order to freeze U.S. foreign aid for 90 days.
A variety of dramatic cuts in the United States Agency for International Development programs were followed and important humanitarian assistance was granted.
The aid freeze caused shock and frustration to the independent agency created by a 1961 bill by the U.S. Congress.
Prior to the closure, the agency managed an annual budget of nearly $43 billion, accounting for more than 40% of the world’s humanitarian aid. Shortly after Trump took office, most of his employees were assigned administrative leave.
In a memorandum on Friday, U.S. Agency for International Development staff were told to eliminate all work not required by law, according to multiple media organizations in the United States.
In the memorandum, the State Department also reportedly plans to retire most of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s independent actions in the coming months.
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