<
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-usaid-rubio-marocco-canceled-programs-gaza-syria-congo-hiv-ebola>
"The axing of some 10,000 programs has consigned untold numbers of children and
refugees to death, officials say. Documents and interviews reveal that the
State Department appears to have made the cuts without the careful review it
described in court.
After the Trump administration moved to freeze nearly $60 billion in foreign
aid in January, officials like Secretary of State Marco Rubio repeatedly
assured Americans that lifesaving operations would continue. “We don’t want to
see anybody die,” he told reporters in early February.
Aid organizations the world over scrambled to prove their work saved lives,
seeking permission from the State Department and the U.S. Agency for
International Development to continue operating.
The administration conceded that many programs prevent immediate death and
should remain online: field hospitals in Gaza, an HIV drug supplier for the
Democratic Republic of Congo, Syrian refugee food programs, health clinics that
combat Ebola in Uganda and most of the landmark President’s Emergency Plan for
AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR.
In late January, Rubio and one of his top aides, Peter Marocco, said those
programs and dozens of others could continue, granting them temporary waivers
while the officials conducted what they have called a “targeted, case-by-case
review” of all foreign aid programs managed by the State Department and USAID.
That review, they said, would take three months.
Four weeks later, on Wednesday, Rubio and Marocco completely ended nearly
10,000 aid programs in one fell swoop — including those they had granted
waivers just days earlier — saying the programs did not align with Trump’s
agenda. The move consigns untold numbers of the world’s poorest children,
refugees and other vulnerable people to death, according to several senior
federal officials. Local authorities have already begun estimating a death toll
in the hundreds of thousands.
Now, as the administration faces multiple lawsuits challenging its actions, the
court fights largely hinge on whether government officials deliberated
responsibly before cutting off funding. The U.S. has also refused to pay almost
$2 billion that the government owes aid organizations for work they’ve already
completed.
Rubio and Marocco appear to have taken their dramatic steps without the careful
review they’ve described to the courts, according to internal documents and
interviews with more than a dozen officials from the State Department and
USAID, which raises fresh questions about the legality of President Donald
Trump’s evisceration of the American foreign aid system.
Current and former officials say that Marocco and Rubio cut critical programs
without consulting contract officers, who have oversight of individual programs
and are aid groups’ primary contacts. “None of us believe that they’re
conducting a careful, individualized review,” one official said."
Via David.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
