By Leah Douglas, Lisa Baertlein, Jonathan Landay and Patricia Zengerle
(Reuters) – The dismantling of USAID by the Trump administration means there are no staff to process waivers submitted by food and other aid organizations hoping to resume operations under humanitarian exemptions to Trump’s international aid freeze, five sources said.
The State Department’s January 24 order to freeze international aid has halted the operation of groups that distribute millions of tons of U.S. commodities every year to alleviate poverty around the world, and has meant lost sales for some farmers.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last month that food and other life-saving aid was exempt from the freeze.
But to resume operations, the groups must submit requests for waivers to their contacts at USAID and receive memos from the secretary’s office, said a congressional source with knowledge of the process.
The staff reduction at USAID this week from more than 10,000 to several hundred has left organizations without contacts at the agency and rendered the waiver process effectively moot, said four sources.
U.S. Representative Lois Frankel, the top Democrat on the House subcommittee that oversees spending on foreign aid, said humanitarian waivers were not being implemented because so many USAID staff had been cut.
“There’s no one to do it. It’s total chaos out in the field and here, with contractors, recipients, mission partners. Everything has stopped,” she said.
The State Department did not immediately respond on Friday to a request for comment.
The administration told USAID workers on Thursday night that 611 essential staff would be retained.
A USAID official who deals with humanitarian aid at the agency’s headquarters said there are no staff remaining to process waiver requests.
“There is no process really. That is clear. It is completely oblique and changes by the day as the dysfunction roils on here,” the official said in an online briefing arranged by StandUpForAID, a group of current and former officials formed to raise awareness of the impact of the Trump administration’s dismantling of the agency.
The official requested anonymity for fear of reprisal.
Another hurdle to resuming life-saving aid is unpaid contracts to groups that provide aid abroad.
Four contractors told Reuters they were owed more than $100 million by USAID.
“The financial system is still not working, and organizations like ours are still owed millions of dollars for work that we completed before even the (presidential) inauguration,” said one contractor.
“We will not, we cannot, restart without being paid and also getting the obligations that are due to us to do the work,” they said.
(Reporting by Leah Douglas, Jonathan Landay, and Patricia Zengerle in Washington and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Rod Nickel)
