The State Department has eliminated $214 million in foreign funding initiatives, nixing 139 taxpayer-funded grants that promoted, among other things, "newsroom sustainability" in Moldova, "media diversity" in the United Kingdom, and "environmental resilience" in Armenia, SİA reports citing Washington Free Beacon.
DOGE carried out the "supplemental review of remaining foreign assistance grant programs" after the State Department completed its initial foreign funding review in late February, an internal State Department memo obtained by the Free Beacon shows. Though the initial review saw the agency identify $60 billion worth of foreign grants for elimination, DOGE's supplemental probe revealed "a significant number of grant programs which remain inconsistent with Administration policies," particularly those related to "media advocacy programming," according to the memo.
Axed grants include a $14.6 million program that supported "expanded newsroom sustainability and engagement" in Moldova; a $5.2 million "media diversity" grant that funded an "anti-disinformation program in the United Kingdom"; a $400,000 "Building Environmental Resilience" grant in Armenia; a $1 million grant "channeling gig workers' rights" in Brazil; and a $750,000 grant for "building the migrant domestic worker-led movement" in Lebanon, where Hezbollah holds sway over the government.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed off on the cuts Monday night, and they will be "actioned" starting today, according to a senior State Department official.
The move shows that the Trump administration is not yet done taking aim at foreign funding initiatives that it says stray from "life-saving aid and strategic and national security priorities." The administration paused nearly all U.S. foreign assistance earlier this year as the State Department conducted its review, which was delayed in February amid a court battle that is now resolved. Cuts have particularly targeted the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which saw its spending curbed by roughly 80 percent.
Bütün xəbərlər Facebook səhifəmizdə
USD
EUR
GBP
RUB