State Department suspends nearly all U.S. foreign aid for 3 months

Geoff Bennett:

Late today, the U.S. State Department suspended all foreign assistance around the world for at least three months. It affects tens of billions of dollars for programs that extend from military assistance to Ukraine to supporting police in Mexico who are supposed to stop fentanyl from coming into the U.S.

Nick Schifrin is following this all and joins us now.

So, Nick, what does this direction actually do?

Nick Schifrin:

Geoff, the direction is contained in a memo that hasn't been made public. The State Department hasn't even acknowledged it publicly, but "PBS News Hour" obtained the memo.

And it says the U.S. government — quote — "shall not provide foreign assistance funded by or through the Department and USAID without the secretary of state's authorization."

And — quote — "For existing foreign assistance awards, contracting officers and grant officers shall immediately stop — issue stop-work orders."

It says, within 30 days the department will develop review standards. Within 85 days, it will complete a comprehensive review and within 180 days all U.S. foreign assistance will be aligned with President Trump's vision. Bottom line, Geoff, every dollar being spent in terms of U.S. foreign assistance around the world is now being paused.

There are a few exceptions, foreign military financing for Israel and Egypt and emergency food assistance around the world.

Geoff Bennett:

So what programs could this suspension affect?

Nick Schifrin:

We're talking about everything, including security assistance around the world. So $40 billion is generally the total that's cited in terms of total foreign assistance. About half of that is military assistance. So this affects security assistance or some of the security assistance, certainly, to Ukraine, to Taiwan, to Jordan.

These are key U.S. allies and partners around the world. And it's not just weapons. It's things like training. But on top of military assistance, this is what the U.S. government calls security assistance. So that's police. There's some $2 billion for policing around the world. And so, as you identified at the top, some of this is for Mexican police who are supposed to go after the cartels that have just been labeled foreign terrorist organizations, who are supposed to interdict fentanyl that has affected so much — so many communities in the United States.

So this really goes so far across the world, West Africa against counterterrorism funding through this program. So there are big questions about how much — how long this will last, how the Trump team will resume it. They say that they simply don't have enough visibility into all of these programs. They need to pause it in order to better understand it and align it with their vision.

Geoff Bennett:

Nick Schifrin with this late-breaking news, our thanks to you, as always.

Nick Schifrin:

Thank you.