Yesterday started the Trump 2.0 Administration in the USA and the new President has signed a slew of Executive Orders. These generally govern the processes of the Executive branch of government, which includes USAID.
USAID 90 Day Funding Freeze
The Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid Executive Order imposes a 90 day pause on all new foreign development assistance program obligations and disbursements to foreign countries and implementing non-governmental organizations, international organizations, and contractors.
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This funding pause requires the reviews of such programs for programmatic efficiency and consistency with United States foreign policy, to be conducted within 90 days by the responsible department and agency heads under guidelines provided by the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Director of OMB.
A separate Executive Order installed Jason Gray as the acting Administrator of USAID
Creating Department of Government Efficiency
The Establishing and Implementing the President’s “Department of Government Efficiency” Executive Order renames the United States Digital Service into the United States DOGE Service (USDS). Each Agency leader is instructed to create a DOGE Team of at least four employees: one DOGE Team Lead, one engineer, one human resources specialist, and one attorney.
The DOGE Administrator will focus on a Software Modernization Initiative to improve the quality and efficiency of government-wide software, network infrastructure, and information technology (IT) systems. This initiative will promote interoperability between agency networks and systems, ensure data integrity, and facilitate responsible data collection and synchronization.
Withdrawing from WHO & Paris Agreements
President Trump decreed that the United States will withdrawal from the World Health Organization. This includes pausing any payments to WHO and recalling any USG staff or contractors who work with the WHO.
He also decreed that the United States will withdrawal from the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The US now joins Iran, Yemen and Libya as the only countries not part of the Agreement.
Hiring Freeze & No More Work From Home
Trump issued a freeze on the hiring of Federal civilian employees regardless of their sources of operational and programmatic funding. Agencies are prohibited from using contracting outside the Federal Government to circumvent the intent of the memorandum
Trump issued a Executive Order that may have an outsized impact on foreign assistance staff who live outside of Washington, DC. The order asks all Agency and Department leaders to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis.
Kat Duffy pointed out that the Executive Order imposes a 90 day pause on all new foreign development assistance programs, which includes the US State Department, Millennium Challenge Corporation, International Development Finance Corporation, and even USDA, in addition to USAID.
Phil Psilos asked a key question: What are “disbursements” in this context? Any funds not already in use by the implementing partner? Or just new obligations from USAID and other foreign assistance providers?