美国国务院将接管此前由美国国际开发署(USAID)负责的项目，官员们表示，此举将重组美国的对外援助，并将其重新定位于国家利益，因为一项新的研究发现，到2030年，削减可能导致数百万人死亡。
国务卿马尔科·卢比奥在一篇文章中宣布子堆栈周二，美国国际开发署——负责监督外国援助、救灾和国际发展项目——将不再向其他国家提供援助。
“自7月1日起，美国国际开发署将正式停止实施对外援助，”卢比奥写道。“符合政府政策并促进美国利益的外国援助项目将由国务院管理，在国务院，这些项目将更加负责、更有策略、更有效率。”
美国国务院一名高级官员周二向记者介绍说，“美国对外援助政策”将旨在与特朗普政府和美国合作伙伴的外交政策议程“在外交上挂钩”。
这位官员说:“一旦我们完成了这一过渡，项目在这里结束，我认为接下来的几个月将有助于表明我们认为我们的未来愿景在哪里。”“我们没有预见到运营上的缺口。”
对外援助署是第一批政府机构之一政府效率部，以前由埃隆·马斯克管理，大幅缩减联邦政府的规模.
特朗普政府试图解散美国国际开发署，终止数千份合同并安排员工休假。
在一个二月声明，美国国务院表示，“美国国际开发署的大部分资金不符合美国的核心国家利益。”
在周一与美国国际开发署工作人员私下分享的告别录音中，前总统乔治·w·布什和巴拉克·奥巴马批评了撤销该机构的决定。
据报道，奥巴马称解散美国国际开发署是一个悲剧和“巨大的错误”美联社，其中回顾了视频的部分内容。据美联社报道，布什重点谈到了总统防治艾滋病紧急救援计划，这是他执政期间发起的应对艾滋病流行的全球卫生倡议，被认为挽救了2500万人的生命。
人道主义援助组织表示，他们已经目睹了美国国际开发署削减的影响，帮助经历贫困和冲突的社区的项目被关闭。
“这是极其悲伤的一天，”国际救援委员会(IRC)紧急和人道主义行动副总裁鲍勃·基钦(Bob Kitchen)告诉美国广播公司新闻。“在过去的几十年里，我有幸与世界各地数百名忠诚的美国国际开发署工作人员一起工作。他们做了令人惊叹的工作，资助了令人惊叹的项目，很遗憾看到这种情况即将结束。”
Kitchen说，IRC已经失去了几项资助，其40%的资金来自美国国际开发署。因此，他说，几个国际救援委员会的项目现在已经关闭或即将关闭，包括水和卫生项目，移动医疗诊所和学校项目。
“这看起来像是……由于这个项目的关闭，成千上万的女孩不再能去任何形式的学校(在阿富汗)，”Kitchen说。“真正让我震惊的是，我们找到了让成千上万的女孩上学的方法，包括非正式学校和地下学校。这一切都停止了。”
美国国际开发署关闭之际，一项研究发表在柳叶刀周一发现，到2030年，对美国国际开发署的削减可能会导致超过1400万人死亡。
利用模型，作者估计了美国国际开发署的资助对2001年至2021年死亡人数的影响。然后，该小组使用模型来估计从现在起长达五年的影响。
该研究发现，在21年的研究期间，美国国际开发署向低收入和中等收入国家提供的资金防止了9100多万例死亡，包括艾滋病毒/艾滋病死亡率下降了65%，疟疾死亡率下降了51%。
预测模型不仅预测了因大幅削减而导致的数百万额外死亡，还预测其中三分之一的死亡将发生在5岁以下的儿童身上。
这位国务院官员说，这些研究“误解了”政府对外援助的新愿景，报道的生死攸关的影响“不是我们在实地听到的。”
“你可以回去重新审视所有这些小决定。这不是我们的重点，”这位官员说。“那不是书记关注的重点。“我们对‘美国第一’对外援助议程将会是什么样的，以及我们在前进过程中能产生多大的影响感到兴奋。”
这位官员说，例如，新战略将期望合作伙伴为艾滋病毒感染者承担更多的预防工作，并减少他们对美国资助的预防性卫生保健项目的依赖。
他们指出，迄今为止，高达90%的直接受益者正在根据总统艾滋病紧急救援计划接受药物治疗。这位官员说，将有更多的投资用于终止母婴艾滋病毒传播。
“政府的目标是在特朗普总统离任时结束母婴传播，我们认为我们可以实现这一目标，我们将在这一特定领域投入更多资金，”这名官员说。
USAID programs now being run by State Department as agency ends operations
The State Department is taking over programs previously run by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in a move officials say will restructure U.S. foreign assistance and reorient it toward national interests, as a new study finds the cuts could contribute to millions of deaths by 2030.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in a post onSubstackon Tuesday that USAID -- which oversaw foreign aid, disaster relief and international development programs -- would no longer be providing assistance to other countries.
"As of July 1st, USAID will officially cease to implement foreign assistance," Rubio wrote. "Foreign assistance programs that align with administration policies -- and which advance American interests -- will be administered by the State Department, where they will be delivered with more accountability, strategy, and efficiency."
A senior official at the State Department, who briefed reporters on Tuesday, said the "U.S. foreign assistance policy" would aim to be "linked up diplomatically" with the foreign policy agenda of the Trump administration and U.S. partners.
"Once we get through this transition and the programs are over here, I think the next few months are going to help indicate where we think our vision of the future is," the official said. "We do not foresee a gap operationally."
The foreign aid agency was among the first government agencies the Department of Government Efficiency, formerly run by Elon Musk,slashed in its effort to scale back the size of the federal government.
The Trump administration sought to dismantle USAID,terminating thousands of contractsand placing workers on leave.
In astatement in February,the State Department said "significant portions of USAID funding are not aligned with the core national interests of the United States."
In recorded farewell remarks shared privately with USAID staff on Monday, former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama criticized the decision to gut the agency.
Obama calling the dismantling of USAID a tragedy and a "colossal mistake," according toThe Associated Press, which reviewed portions of the video. Bush focused on PEPFAR -- the global health initiative launched under his administration to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic -- which is credited for saving 25 million lives, the AP reported.
Humanitarian aid organizations said they have been witnessing the effects of USAID cuts, with programs shutting down that helped communities experiencing poverty and conflict.
"It's an extremely sad day," Bob Kitchen, vice president of emergency and humanitarian action with the International Rescue Committee (IRC), told ABC News. "I had the pleasure of working with hundreds of committed USAID staff around the world over the last couple of decades. They've done amazing work and funded amazing projects, and it's sad to see like that'll come predominantly to an end."
Kitchen said IRC has lost several of its grants and that 40% of its funding came from USAID. As a result, he said several IRC programs are now closed or will soon close, including water and sanitation programs, mobile health clinics and school programs.
"What that looks like … is many thousands of girls who no longer can go to any form of school [In Afghanistan] as a result of the closure of this program," Kitchen said. "The one that really hits me is we have somehow found ways to keep thousands of girls going to school, informal schools, underground schools. That has all stopped."
USAID's closure comes amid a study published inThe Lanceton Monday that found cuts to USAID could cause more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030.
Using models, the authors estimated the impact of USAID funding on deaths from 2001 to 2021. The team then used models to estimate effects up to five years from now.
The study found that more than 91 million deaths were prevented by USAID funding to low-income and middle-income countries over the 21-year study period, including a 65% reduction in mortality from HIV/AIDS and a 51% reduction from malaria.
Forecasting models not only predicted millions of additional deaths due to the steep cuts, but also that one-third of those deaths are projected to occur in children younger than age 5.
The State Department official said such studies "misapprehend" the administration's new vision for foreign assistance and that reported life-and-death impacts "is not what we're hearing on the ground."
"You can go back and relitigate all these little decisions. That's not our focus," the official said. "That's not the secretary's focus. We are excited about what sort of the 'America First' foreign assistance agenda is going to look like, and how much impact we can have moving forward."
The official said the new strategy would, for example, expect partners to take on more prevention work for patients with HIV infections and reduce their reliance on U.S.-funded programs for preventive health care.
They noted that up to 90% of direct beneficiaries are receiving their medication under PEPFAR to date. There will be more investment in ending mother-to-child HIV transmission, the official said.
"The administration has a target of ending mother-child transmission by the time that President Trump leaves office, and we think that we can meet that and we're going to invest more in that particular space," the official said.
