Trump administration rapidly guts the Inter-American Foundation

The Trump administration has effectively shut down the Inter-American Foundation, or IAF, as part of the broader effort to drastically cut down U.S. foreign aid. The independent government agency, which was created by Congress in 1969, awards small grants to civil society organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The foundation’s website and systems are nonfunctional, staff members were placed on administrative leave, and all contracts and grants have been terminated except for one grant, wrote Greg Jacobs, the managing director of programs, in a post on LinkedIn. He said the foundation is “basically closed.” The dismantling of this foundation has unfolded in recent weeks alongside efforts to close down the U.S. African Development Foundation, or USADF, and the U.S. Institute of Peace. U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Feb. 19, calling for their effective elimination, describing them as “unnecessary.” The Trump administration then installed Peter Marocco, acting deputy administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, as acting board chair of IAF. Marocco then voted to appoint himself acting president and chief executive officer. The foundation's president and CEO, Sara Aviel, was fired. Eight Democratic members of Congress wrote to President Trump on Monday, calling the placement of Marocco as board chair “unlawful and unacceptable,” noting that any actions he takes, including terminating staff, are “illegitimate.” They said it’s required by law that the Senate confirms individuals appointed to the board. A similar playbook has been used to unravel USADF. Ward Brehm, president and CEO of the U.S. African Development Foundation, filed a lawsuit in federal district court against Marocco and the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. According to court documents filed Thursday, DOGE used a “virtually identical plan” to “terminate” IAF as it has used in dismantling USADF. On Feb. 20, DOGE informed IAF representatives that it aimed to reduce the foundation’s functions to “statutory minimum operations,” according to the court filings. This would include only the existence of a board, president, a presence in Washington, D.C., and a “minimum level” of grants and contracts. The DOGE representatives said they intended to send out reduction in workforce notices immediately if the board supported it. DOGE representatives were then told that congressional appropriations committees needed to be first given notice and that there are legal requirements before the board can meet. But the DOGE representatives stated they “needed an immediate yes-or-no answer from the Board,” wrote Brehm’s legal counsel. On Feb. 28, the foundation received a communication that Trump appointed Marocco as acting chair of IAF’s board and the “communication represented that there were no other remaining members of the Board of IAF.” Marocco then held an “emergency board meeting” — as “the only purported board member” — outside IAF’s office because nobody was there to let him in, where he voted to appoint himself as acting president and CEO of IAF, according to the filings. On Monday, Morocco and DOGE sent out reduction in workforce notices to “most or all” of IAF’s employees and began canceling almost all of IAF’s grants, returning outside donations, shutting employees out of IT systems, and taking the website down. “We are alarmed that, given the lack of authority for Mr. Marocco to serve in such a capacity, Mr. Marocco has apparently directed the Department of the Treasury to terminate IAF and USADF contracts,” the eight Democratic members of Congress wrote to Trump on Monday. In his LinkedIn post, IAF’s Jacobs wrote that the work at the foundation supported communities across Latin America and the Caribbean to “create economic opportunities, reduce migration and combat violence.” The funds went to local organizations, which matched $1.36 for each dollar, he said. “This work was meaningful and it was doing good in the world. IAF grantees had a more favorable view of the US, were less likely to migrate, their communities were safer and they had higher incomes,” he wrote. In the U.S. African Development Foundation’s case, a federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from ousting USADF’s Brehm as president.