Marco Rubio orders halt to almost all U.S. foreign aid
The directive follows President Donald Trump’s executive order Monday pausing new obligations and disbursements of foreign aid pending review.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered an immediate stop to the flow of almost all U.S. foreign assistance Friday pending a review, according to an internal State Department cable obtained by NBC News.
The directive sent to all consular and diplomatic posts follows President Donald Trump’s executive order Monday pausing new obligations and disbursements of foreign aid pending reviews “for programmatic efficiency and consistency” with U.S. foreign policy, within 90 days of the order.
The memo stipulates that U.S. departments, agencies and entities “shall not provide foreign assistance funded by or through the Department and USAID without the Secretary of State’s authorization or the authorization of his designee.”
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Rubio issued a waiver for foreign military financing for both Israel and Egypt, but no other countries were specifically mentioned in the cable. Rubio spoke with both his Israeli and Egyptian counterparts Thursday ahead of the directive.
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