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Now they are dismantling programs their fellow Republicans championed for decades.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and man-about-town Elon Musk. (Collage by Hannah Yoest / Photos via Getty Images.)
On Wednesday, reports began dribbling out that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had signed off on eliminating 92 percent of USAID grants, around 4,100 of them, with a savings of $60 billion. On Thursday morning, foreign aid officials woke up to see the details of those cuts. The reaction was justified shock.
Programs that the administration had suggested it believed were worth continuing were now being terminated. That includes efforts to combat the AIDS epidemic—such as George W. Bush’s famed PEPFAR program—that have been a source of bipartisan pride for decades.
One government notice, passed along to The Bulwark, showed that USAID was terminating its contract for the joint U.N. AIDS program, which is the primary mechanism for monitoring the disease globally. An official who works on the program estimated that Rubio had eliminated half of its funding.
That was just a small portion of the carnage.
Two sources familiar with the matter say USAID support for South Africa’s PEPFAR programs were also terminated overnight. The Trump administration had already moved to cut off all aid to the country, citing disagreement with social policies there. But this isn’t about social policies. Bhekisisa, a global health news outlet, reported that PEPFAR-funded organizations “woke up to letters that were sent overnight telling them their grants have been ended—permanently.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
The full extent of the PEPFAR cuts is not entirely clear as of now, though one foreign official told The Bulwark that in addition to any cuts, some USAID employees who work on the program were put on administrative leave.
Even if the USAID spigot was fully cut off, there are other sources of funds into the program, including from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Defense.
But the sheer magnitude of the damage was breathtaking for those in the field. A coalition of South African groups trying to raise awareness of the PEPFAR funding cuts have hastily organized a zoom call for Thursday. The advisory noted that “though PEPFAR funding support makes up around 17% of South Africa’s HIV budget, the entire programme is at risk, because so many critical projects, such as monitoring and testing, will be weakened.”
And it wasn’t just PEPFAR, of course. A fact sheet sent along by groups trying to undo the cuts noted that one of the
contracts terminated was for “a project in the Democratic Republic of Congo that operates the only source of water for 250,000 people in camps for displaced people located in the center of current fighting.”
Adding to the shock was how the cuts transpired. USAID officials were operating under the impression that they remained in the 90-day review period, during which time all foreign aid contracts were to be scrutinized by Trump leadership. The administration is of course not 90 days old. But Rubio and Peter Marocco, the acting USAID administrator, went ahead anyway. It wasn’t lost on those inside the agency that news of the terminations was leaked to the Free Beacon, the conservative outlet that has become a clearinghouse for critical reporting on USAID functions.
www.thebulwark.com
A Midnight Global Health Massacre
Life-saving programs, including George W. Bush’s cherished global AIDS initiative, were hit in the latest, harshest round of cuts.
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Is W. Awake?
by Sam SteinOn Wednesday, reports began dribbling out that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had signed off on eliminating 92 percent of USAID grants, around 4,100 of them, with a savings of $60 billion. On Thursday morning, foreign aid officials woke up to see the details of those cuts. The reaction was justified shock.
Programs that the administration had suggested it believed were worth continuing were now being terminated. That includes efforts to combat the AIDS epidemic—such as George W. Bush’s famed PEPFAR program—that have been a source of bipartisan pride for decades.
One government notice, passed along to The Bulwark, showed that USAID was terminating its contract for the joint U.N. AIDS program, which is the primary mechanism for monitoring the disease globally. An official who works on the program estimated that Rubio had eliminated half of its funding.
That was just a small portion of the carnage.
Two sources familiar with the matter say USAID support for South Africa’s PEPFAR programs were also terminated overnight. The Trump administration had already moved to cut off all aid to the country, citing disagreement with social policies there. But this isn’t about social policies. Bhekisisa, a global health news outlet, reported that PEPFAR-funded organizations “woke up to letters that were sent overnight telling them their grants have been ended—permanently.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
The full extent of the PEPFAR cuts is not entirely clear as of now, though one foreign official told The Bulwark that in addition to any cuts, some USAID employees who work on the program were put on administrative leave.
Even if the USAID spigot was fully cut off, there are other sources of funds into the program, including from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Defense.
But the sheer magnitude of the damage was breathtaking for those in the field. A coalition of South African groups trying to raise awareness of the PEPFAR funding cuts have hastily organized a zoom call for Thursday. The advisory noted that “though PEPFAR funding support makes up around 17% of South Africa’s HIV budget, the entire programme is at risk, because so many critical projects, such as monitoring and testing, will be weakened.”
And it wasn’t just PEPFAR, of course. A fact sheet sent along by groups trying to undo the cuts noted that one of the
contracts terminated was for “a project in the Democratic Republic of Congo that operates the only source of water for 250,000 people in camps for displaced people located in the center of current fighting.”
Adding to the shock was how the cuts transpired. USAID officials were operating under the impression that they remained in the 90-day review period, during which time all foreign aid contracts were to be scrutinized by Trump leadership. The administration is of course not 90 days old. But Rubio and Peter Marocco, the acting USAID administrator, went ahead anyway. It wasn’t lost on those inside the agency that news of the terminations was leaked to the Free Beacon, the conservative outlet that has become a clearinghouse for critical reporting on USAID functions.
A Midnight Global Health Massacre
Life-saving programs, including George W. Bush’s cherished global AIDS initiative, were hit in the latest, harshest round of cuts.
www.thebulwark.com
