WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday (April 8) moved to reinstate at least six recently cancelled US foreign aid programmes for emergency food assistance, six sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The quick reversal of decisions made just days ago underscored the rapid-fire nature of Trump's cuts to foreign aid. That has led to programmes being cut, restored then cut again, disrupting international humanitarian operations.
USAID Acting Deputy Administrator Jeremy Lewin, who has previously been identified as a member of billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, asked staff in an internal email to reverse the terminations.
He asked to restore awards to the World Food Programme in Lebanon, Syria, Somalia, Jordan, Iraq and Ecuador, five sources familiar with the matter said.
The administration has also resumed four awards to the International Organisation for Migration in the Pacific region, two sources familiar with the matter said.
"Sorry for all the back and forth on awards," Lewin said on Tuesday in the internal email seen by Reuters. "There are a lot of stakeholders and we need to do better about balancing these competing interests — that's my fault and I take responsibility," he added.
Reuters reported on Monday that the Trump administration had ended life-saving aid programmes for more than a dozen countries including Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and Syria, totalling over US$1.3 billion (S$1.75 billion).
According to Stand Up For Aid, an advocacy group of current and former US officials, WFP contracts cancelled on Lewin's orders last weekend for Lebanon, Syria, Somalia and Jordan totaled more than US$463 million.
Many of the terminated programmes had been granted waivers by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio following an initial round of cuts to foreign aid programmes. The State Department said those did not reflect a final decision.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment about restoring the awards.
The decision to restore some aid followed pressure from inside the administration and from Congress, two sources said.
The World Food Programme said on Monday that the US notified the organisation it was eliminating emergency food assistance funding in 14 countries, warning: "If implemented, this could amount to a death sentence for millions of people facing extreme hunger and starvation."
The US did not restore aid to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and to Yemen, most of which is controlled by Islamist militants of the Iran-backed Houthi movement. Washington has been the largest aid donor to both countries, which have suffered years of devastating war.
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce on Tuesday told reporters that the United States had concerns that WFP funding for Yemen and Afghanistan was benefiting the Houthis and the Taliban.
"There were a few programmes that were cut in other countries that were not meant to be cut that have been rolled back and put into place," Bruce said, adding that the administration remains committed to foreign aid.
Among the cuts over the weekend were US$169.8 million for the WFP in Somalia, covering food assistance, nutrition for malnourished babies and children and humanitarian air support. In Syria, US$111 million was cut from WFP food assistance.
The cuts have been the latest piece of the Trump administration's drive to dismantle USAID, the main US humanitarian aid agency.
The administration has cancelled billions of dollars in foreign aid since the Republican president began his second term on Jan 20 in an overhaul that officials described as marked by chaos and confusion.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democrats on Tuesday wrote a letter to Rubio regarding plans to restructure the State Department, including by folding in USAID, which they said was "unconstitutional, illegal, unjustified, damaging, and inefficient."
Source: Reuters
