USAID Made America Safer, Stronger and More Prosperous

Last Friday evening, a U.S. federal judge issued a limited halt to President Donald Trump’s efforts to lay off most of the 10,000 employees of the U.S. Agency for International Development at home and abroad.

It was a temporary reprieve, but it doesn’t change the president’s plan to abolish a fundamental pillar of American foreign policy. For 80 years since the end of World War II, the U.S. has provided foreign assistance not just as a way to alleviate humanitarian crises abroad, but as a critical lever of American influence and power.

The U.S. is by far the biggest single donor of foreign assistance in the world through the agency known as USAID, which supports lifesaving aid, disaster relief, anti-poverty and education programs in some 120 countries – from combating starvation and epidemics to building clean water and sanitation systems.

The modern concept of international development aid emerged after World War II, building on the U.S.-funded Marshall Plan that rebuilt war-ravaged Europe. USAID was established by Congress in 1961 under the presidency of John F. Kennedy, meaning no president has the authority to abolish it, according to an analysis last week by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.