USAID Website Goes Offline Amid Donald Trump's Global Aid Freeze

(MENAFN- Live Mint) The website of the U.S. Agency for International Development went offline without explanation Saturday as thousands of furloughs, layoffs and program shutdowns continued in President Donald Trump's freeze on U.S.-funded foreign aid and development worldwide.

Congressional Democrats battled the Trump administration increasingly openly, expressing concern that Trump may be headed toward ending USAID as an independent agency and absorbing it into the State Department. Democrats say Trump has no legal authority to eliminate a congressionally funded independent agency, and that the work of USAID is vital to national security.

Trump and congressional Republicans say much of foreign aid and development programs is wasteful. They single out programs they say advance liberal social agendas.

The fear of even tougher administration action against USAID comes two weeks into the administration's shutdown of billions of dollars of the United States' humanitarian, development and security assistance.

The U.S. is the world's largest donor of humanitarian aid by far. It spends less than 1% of its budget on foreign assistance, a smaller share overall than some other countries.

Administration officials had no comment Saturday when asked about concerns expressed by lawmakers and others that Trump may be planning to end USAID's separate status..

President John F. Kennedy created the organization at the height of the Cold War to counter Soviet influence. USAID today is at the center of U.S. challenges to the growing influence of China, which has a successful“Belt and Road” foreign aid program of its own.

Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act in 1961, and Kennedy signed that law and an executive order establishing USAID as an independent agency.

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