State Dept. claims foreign aid fereeze prevented $1B in unnecessary spending
In a new release, the State Department said the freeze on U.S. foreign aid is “already paying dividends to our country and our people,” claiming that over a billion dollars “in spending not aligned with an America First agenda has been prevented” already.
The department defended the pause, saying it was necessary to stop programs because “the participants -- both inside and outside of government -- have little to no incentive to share programmatic-level details so long as the dollars continue to flow.”
Additionally, the release defends the waiver program in place -- saying the process “was used successfully dozens of times in the first several days alone” and blaming rejections of “many requests” on the applicant’s failure to provide “the level of detail necessary to allow a thorough evaluation.”
The release also claims that setting aside support for Ukraine, the U.S. is “spending roughly $70 billion in foreign aid annually.” This appears to be taken from the requested international affairs budget for FY2024, as the enacted budget was $60 billion, not including money set aside for emergency funding for Ukraine and other crises.
-ABC News’ Shannon Kingston