Last week, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to temporarily halt its foreign aid freeze on existing programs — one that came as a result of a stop-work order issued by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Jan. 24.
Despite that, the Trump administration is still terminating grants and contracts, with Peter Marocco, the acting deputy administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, stating that virtually “all USAID contracts are terminable by the Agency for convenience,” according to a document filed on Tuesday.
Nearly 500 USAID grants, contracts, and other awards have been terminated since Jan. 22, while many others have been paused, suspended, and forced to stop work, according to the court documents. The State Department has terminated more than 730 grants and 25 contracts and suspended thousands more.
About the author
Elissa Miolene
Elissa Miolene reports on USAID and the U.S. government at Devex. She previously covered education at The San Jose Mercury News, and has written for outlets like The Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Washingtonian magazine, among others. Before shifting to journalism, Elissa led communications for humanitarian agencies in the United States, East Africa, and South Asia.
