The United States does not plan to stop distributing foreign aid around the world but needs to do a better job explaining and defending programs receiving assistance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told U.S. diplomats behind closed doors Wednesday.
“The United States is not walking away from foreign aid. It’s not. We’re going to continue to provide foreign aid and to be involved in programs, but it has to be programs that we can defend. It has to be programs that we can explain. It has to be programs that we can justify. Otherwise, we do endanger foreign aid,” Rubio told about 200 staffers at the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City, according to a partial transcript of his remarks obtained by CBS News.
“This is not about politics, but foreign aid is the least popular thing government spends money on,” Rubio added. “And I spent a lot of time in my career defending it and explaining it, but it’s harder and harder to do across the board – it really is. But for those of us in charge of doing the work of foreign policy, we understand it is essential.”
The State Department and embassy did not respond to requests for comment.
Over 14 years in the U.S. Senate, Rubio served at different times as top Republican on the Foreign Relations and Intelligence committees and became a lead GOP voice on foreign policy matters.
This week he is on his first overseas mission, a five-day tour of Central America and the Caribbean that is designed to reinforce his belief that the U.S. needs to more directly engage its closest neighbors as it seeks to curb illegal immigration and the trade of illicit drugs.
The trip has coincided with a dramatic overhaul of the U.S. Agency for International Development that came to a head last weekend as Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency confronted top agency officials, seeking to learn more about the scope of foreign aid. President Trump signed an executive order Monday essentially folding the agency’s functions into the State Department and named Rubio its acting administrator.
As part of the overhaul, USAID staff were told Tuesday that most staff would be placed on leave Friday night, with exceptions for “mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs.”
Wednesday morning, when Rubio met with embassy personnel in Guatemala, he was asked by the head of USAID in Guatemala about the future of the agency.
“That’s a question that deserves a straight and honest answer, and I’ll give it to you,” Rubio said, according to the transcript.
He said he is hoping to choose all “specially designated programs” by Friday amid a broader review of all foreign aid.
The secretary said he is now seeking input directly from ambassadors around the globe after receiving a list of USAID programs in Guatemala from U.S. Ambassador Tobin Bradley early Wednesday. But he also faulted agency officials in Washington for failing to cooperate with Musk’s team.
“We hope to achieve — over the next 36 to 48 hours — what I’d hope to do in a more orderly way, from the top down… Now we’re going to have to achieve it from the bottom up, defining what those special missions are,” he said.
Rubio cited USAID funding to combat Ebola and some projects run by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS, or PEPFAR, as early examples of exceptions that will continue.
“It has to be done in a way that’s transparent, and we weren’t getting those answers. We just weren’t, at least not from the top down,” Rubio said. “So now, we’re going to have to pursue it from the bottom up. That’s always been our goal with our intention here, and that’s going to continue to be our goal and our intention.”
On Saturday, two top security officials at USAID headquarters in Washington were placed on administrative leave, two sources confirmed to CBS News. Multiple sources said they were fired for attempting to block a DOGE team from accessing classified material in restricted areas.
Even though Rubio is seeking to continue some funding as a broader review of foreign aid continues, it is unclear how the programs can continue if USAID staffers are locked out of their computers and office space and don’t have access to funds.
The email sent Tuesday to USAID staffers said the agency plans to consider “case-by-case” exceptions of staffers who need to stay on the job, and return travel extensions are possible based on “personal or family hardship, mobility, or safety concerns.”
Rubio told diplomats Wednesday those exceptions “came from input from the ground, not from anybody else.” He cited examples of USAID employees who are married and have children with State Department staffers assigned to the same embassy.
“So now you’re basically leaving them with the option of saying, ‘So I have to leave behind my spouse and my children, potentially, and uproot myself and go.’ That’s not our intention. We don’t want to achieve that,” he said.
He also noted, “There are members of [USAID] that are in the third trimester of a pregnancy.” Others, he said, might require special medical attention.
“We have a case, I know in particular, of someone who has to go to dialysis three times a week,” he said. “And so to be ordered to leave is disruptive in terms of, like, continuing with the course of care. And there are people that are deployed in places, frankly, where we don’t want them stranded with them, because, it’s not, you can’t just catch a commercial flight and come home.”
He concluded his lengthy answer by asking the diplomats for grace.
“I know it’s hard to ask for patience. I know it’s hard to ask for trust, because you’ve never met me before. I’ve never been in charge of the State Department. I’ve never been acting USAID administrator before. I don’t get paid double for doing that, by the way.”
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