Trump administration decided to temporarily freeze most of the foreign aid funds, which have been previously approved by the congress, until being reviewed by US Secretary of State Department and United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The State Department and the USAID received a letter from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on Saturday, notifying them of the action, which came into force one minute before midnight that day, according to Washington post.
The OMB asked the agencies for a balance sheet of foreign aid projects that have not yet been funded. Michael P. Duffey, the associate director for national security programs at OMB, wrote that no more money can be obligated from those funds until three days after OMB receives the numbers, a process that could take days if not weeks.
An administration official said that the funds targeted for review are above budgetary limits proposed by President Trump. They include big-ticket items like contributions to the United Nations and smaller items like solar panels in the Caribbean, schools in Uzbekistan and soccer programs in Central America.
According to people familiar with the process, the named funds could be as little as $2 billion and as much as $4 billion.
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