The Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, which officials have said is intended to rein in wasteful spending, has left American workers in limbo and threatens billions of dollars the agency spends on American businesses and organizations, global development experts and industry representatives told The Washington Post.
USAID oversees projects like food aid, disaster relief and health programs in over 100 countries with a staff of more than 10,000 and a budget of around $40 billion. Billions of those dollars flowed back into the American economy until President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day freeze on foreign-aid spending last month.
Now U.S. businesses that sold goods and services to USAID are in limbo. That includes American farms, which supply about about 41 percent of the food aid that the agency, working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, sends around the world each year, according to a 2021 report by the Congressional Research Service. In 2020, the U.S. bought $2.1 billion in food aid from American farmers.
Purchases and shipments of U.S. food aid worth over $340 million — including rice, wheat and soybeans — have been paused during Trump’s foreign-aid freeze, according to officials and an email obtained by The Post. That has left hundreds of tons of American-grown wheat stranded in Houston alone, Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota, the highest ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, said Tuesday.
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Besides farmers, researchers whose work is funded by USAID have been furloughed. Smaller companies in sectors like global healthcare could go out of business, upending the jobs of office staff and security guards. Experts and representatives from the industries affected said the disruption will worsen if the pause in spending continues and USAID continues to lose staff that once administered these programs.
“You’re talking about a direct impact on American products and American jobs,” said George Ingram, a senior fellow at the Center for Sustainable Development at the Brookings Institution.
USAID oversees projects like food aid, disaster relief and health programs in over 100 countries with a staff of more than 10,000 and a budget of around $40 billion. Billions of those dollars flowed back into the American economy until President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day freeze on foreign-aid spending last month.
Now U.S. businesses that sold goods and services to USAID are in limbo. That includes American farms, which supply about about 41 percent of the food aid that the agency, working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, sends around the world each year, according to a 2021 report by the Congressional Research Service. In 2020, the U.S. bought $2.1 billion in food aid from American farmers.
Purchases and shipments of U.S. food aid worth over $340 million — including rice, wheat and soybeans — have been paused during Trump’s foreign-aid freeze, according to officials and an email obtained by The Post. That has left hundreds of tons of American-grown wheat stranded in Houston alone, Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota, the highest ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, said Tuesday.
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Besides farmers, researchers whose work is funded by USAID have been furloughed. Smaller companies in sectors like global healthcare could go out of business, upending the jobs of office staff and security guards. Experts and representatives from the industries affected said the disruption will worsen if the pause in spending continues and USAID continues to lose staff that once administered these programs.
“You’re talking about a direct impact on American products and American jobs,” said George Ingram, a senior fellow at the Center for Sustainable Development at the Brookings Institution.
