Washington
AP
–
The American agency for international development agency was offline without explanation on Saturday while thousands of content, layoffs and programs closings continued in the freezing of President Donald Trump on foreign aid and The development of the United States in the world.
Congress Democrats fought the Trump administration increasingly openly, expressing the concern that Trump could go towards the end of the USAID as an independent agency and absorb it in the State Department. Democrats say that Trump has no legal power to eliminate an independent agency funded by Congress and that USAID work is vital for national security.
Trump and the Congress Republicans say that a large part of the foreign aid and development programs is a waste. They distinguish the programs they say they advance liberal social agendas.
The fear of an even more difficult administration action against USAID comes two weeks after the administration of billions of dollars in humanitarian, development and security of the United States.
The United States is by far the world’s largest donor of humanitarian aid. He spends less than 1% of his budget for foreign aid, a share as a whole smaller than certain other countries.
Administration officials made no comments on Saturday when they asked them for the concerns expressed by legislators and others that Trump was planning to end USAID as an independent agency.
President John F. Kennedy created USAID at the height of the Cold War to counter the Soviet influence. The congress adopted the law on foreign assistance in 1961 and Kennedy signed this law and a decree establishing USAID as an independent agency. USAID today is at the center of the American challenges with the growing influence of China, which has a “Belt and Road” foreign aid program succeeded in itself.
USAID staff members passed on Friday and Saturday in group discussions on monitoring the fate of their agency, giving updates on the question of whether the flag and the USAID panels were still in Outside the head office in Washington. Late Saturday afternoon, they were.
In an article on Friday on X, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy du Connecticut said that the presidents could not eliminate federal agencies appropriate by the congress by decree, and said that Trump was about to “double a constitutional crisis” .
“This is a despot – who wants to steal taxpayers to enrich his billionaire cabale – the fact,” said Murphy.
Billionaire Elon Musk, advising Trump in a campaign to reduce the federal government in the name of efficiency, has approved messages on his site X calling for dissolving USAID.
“Live by decree, to die by decree,” said Musk on Saturday in reference to USAID.
Trump placed an unprecedented 90 -day freeze on foreign aid on his first day in mandate on January 20. Days later, the State Department froze almost all foreign aid in the world, closing thousands of programs around the world and forcing conquest or layoffs of several thousand.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has since moved to keep more types of emergency programs strictly vital during frost. Aid groups say that the confusion surrounding programs is still authorized to operate contributes to paralysis in global aid organizations.
Rubio said Thursday, in his first public comments on the issue, that USAID programs were being examined to eliminate those who are not in the national interest, but he said nothing about the Elimination of USAID as an agency.
The closure of the United States funded programs during the 90-day journal noted that the United States “obtained much more cooperation” of humanitarian, development and security beneficiaries, said Rubio.
Republicans and Democrats fought the agency for years, asking if humanitarian aid and development protects the United States by helping to stabilize partner and economies, or if it is a Silver waste. Republicans generally push to give the State Department more control over the USAID policy and funds, while Democrats generally strengthen the autonomy and authority of the USAID.
A version of this legal battle took place in Trump’s first mandate, when the president tried to reduce the budget for foreign operations by a third party.
When the Congress refused, the Trump administration used freezes and other tactics to reduce the flow of funds already appropriate by the congress for foreign programs. The general accounting office then judged that it had violated a law known as law on deduction control.
