The operations of US Agency for International Development ,USAID, was on Tuesday brought to an end after months of gradual winding down.
In a statement in February, the State Department said “significant portions of USAID funding are not aligned with the core national interests of the United States.”
The aid agency was among the first government agencies the Department of Government Efficiency, formerly run by Elon Musk, slashed in an effort to scale down the size of the federal government.
This led to the termination thousands of contracts and placing workers on leave, after the Trump administration sought to dismantle the agency.
While USAID officially cease to exist, the State Department is taking over programs previously run by the aid agency.
Announcing the development in post on Substack, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, said USAID, which oversaw foreign aid, disaster relief and international development programs, would no longer be providing assistance to other countries.
He said “As of July 1st, USAID will officially cease to implement foreign assistance,” adding that “Foreign assistance programs that align with administration policies, and which advance American interests, will be administered by the State Department, where they will be delivered with more accountability, strategy, and efficiency.”
A senior official at the State Department, who briefed reporters on Tuesday, said the “U.S. foreign assistance policy” would aim to be “linked up diplomatically” with the foreign policy agenda of the Trump administration and U.S. partners.
“Once we get through this transition and the programs are over here, I think the next few months are going to help indicate where we think our vision of the future is,” the official said. “We do not foresee a gap operationally.”
