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President of Senat Senat Relations Committee Sen. Jim RischR-IDAHO said that an in-depth examination of the American Agency for International Development (USAID) is justified, following the Trump administration efforts to revise the agency.
USAID was an independent agency to provide help from poor countries and offer development assistance, but the agency has been upset since February when President Donald Trump installed the Secretary of State Marco Rubio To oversee the organization in the midst of concerns that USAID has not progressed American basic interests. Since then, the agency has faced layoffs and has been absorbed by the State Department.
This increased examination of the USAID expenses is valid, according to Risch.
“The amount of money on which we spend must be examined from top to bottom,” said Risch during an event on Wednesday at the Washington -based reflection group, the Hudson Institute.
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This increased examination of the USAID expenses is valid, according to Senator Jim Risch, R-Assaho. (Al Drago-Pool / Getty Images)
Risch said that several weeks in the Trump administration, he and others, including Rubio, have evaluated a list of programs that detailed $ 3 million in funding for “the promotion of democracy in the bottom of Slobovia”. According to Risch, the description has not provided enough information and elements like these total up to billions of dollars which must undergo an examination.
“Lower Slobovia” is a fictitious place and a term used by Americans to describe an underdeveloped foreign country.
“We can do so much better, not only in the way, how much money we spend, but also how we spend it,” said Risch. “So, if you say, well, we eliminate this program, be careful that you do not say:” Oh, that means that we are moving away from human rights. “Look, America is human rights. If America opens the way to human rights.
The Ministry of Government (DOGE) has targeted USAID in its efforts to eliminate unnecessary expenses. The agency has been criticized for many financing choices, in particular by allocating $ 1.5 million to a program that sought to “advance diversity, equity and inclusion in workplaces and Serbia business communities” and a $ 70,000 program for “Musical music of I” in Ireland.
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The American senses Jeanne Shaheen, DN.H., and James Risch, R-Assaho, attend the confirmation audience of the Senate foreign relations committee for Marco Rubio to be Secretary of State on January 15, 2025.
Consequently, Rubio announced on March 11 that the State Department had completed a six -week exam and would cancel more than 80% of USAID programs – reducing around 5,200 of the 6,200 USAID programs.
Fox News Digital was the first to report later in March that the State Department planned to absorb the remaining operations and programs that USAID led so that it would no longer work as an independent agency.
This decision means eliminating thousands of staff members in order to improve existing and vital assistance programs, “according to a state service note that Fox News Digital has obtained.
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Senator Jim Risch said that the increase in control evaluating the financing of the USAID is justified. (Alex Brandon-Pool / Getty Images)
“Well -made foreign assistance can advance our national interests, protect our borders and strengthen our partnerships with key allies,” Rubio told a March Digital Declaration. “Unfortunately, USAID moved away from its original mission a long time ago. Consequently, the gains were too few and the costs were too high.”
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“We redirect our foreign assistance programs to align themselves directly with what is best for the United States and our citizens,” said Rubio. “We continue essential rescue programs and carry out strategic investments that strengthen our partners and our own country.”
Meanwhile, the Democrats criticized the restructuring of the agency, labeling the “illegal” move.
“The destruction and dismantling of Donald Trump and Elon Musk of USAID are not only a disastrous foreign policy and against our national security interests; it is clearly illegal,” said the best democrat of the house of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Gregory Meeks, DN.Y., in a press release in March. “Congress wrote a law establishing USAID as an independent agency with its own credit, and only the congress can eliminate it.”
