[Salon] Fact Checking Secretary Rubio’s False Claims to Congress


The Tragic Reality of Foreign Aid Cuts: 

Fact Checking Secretary Rubio’s False Claims to Congress 


On May 20 and 21, in testimony before Congress, Secretary of State Marco Rubio made a number of claims that are inaccurate. Here are the facts: 



Fact: USAID implementers spend more than 70 percent of their funding in the countries and local communities they support. 


Secretary Rubio:  

“At USAID, $0.12 of every dollar was reaching the recipient.”


Seventy to  85 percent of USAID funding implemented by local and international partners is spent in the countries and communities they support. The claim that only $0.12 reaches local recipients  blatantly misuses a statement by former USAID Administrator Power speaking about how much funding goes through large international or U.S. organizations versus how much went through in-country organizations. Rubio’s incorrect claim  conflates the communities that benefit from foreign assistance with the organizations that implement projects.  Additionally, this statistic conflates  funding that goes directly to local organizations with the amount that goes indirectly to local organizations through subawards. A significantly larger amount of funding goes to local organizations through subawards and grants. Finally, the majority of staff working in non-local/Western organizations are from the communities they serve.


Fact: While the United States was the largest single donor of assistance in absolute terms, it is ranked 23rd for the percentage of gross national income spent on foreign aid. With proposed cuts, the U.S. would no longer be the single largest donor.   


Secretary Rubio: 

“Even with what we’re suggesting as changes to our foreign aid, we still will provide more foreign aid, than the next ten countries combined, than the entire OECD.” 


The U.S. was  the largest single donor of assistance. In  2024, according to OECD donor contributions, the U.S. spent $63.3 billion in official development assistance (ODA). This is less than the next three countries combined–Germany, the United Kingdom, and Japan– who together spent $67.16 billion. The next 10 countries combined spent $118.99, close to twice what the U.S. contributed. Additionally, if the U.S. proceeds with the proposed 48% cut to foreign assistance spending as outlined in the President’s FY26 budget request, it will no longer be the leading donor. Furthermore, based on the percentage of the U.S. gross national income (GNI), the U.S. is ranked 23rd in the level of ODA in the world. 


Fact: Less than one third  of PEPFAR programs remain and, among the remaining, only a narrow subset of activities are allowed to continue.  


Secretary Rubio:

 “85% of PEPFAR is functional right now … We have fixed that program [the payment system with Treasury] and the money is flowing. So, 85% of PEPFAR is functioning– there was a reduction in about 15% – but PEPFAR today stands at 85% of functionality.” 


Analysis published by KFF finds that of the 770 global health awards impacted by recent cuts, 379 programs included HIV activities. Of these 379 programs, 71% were terminated, including HIV treatment awards as well as most HIV prevention activities. In various surveys and digital tracking initiatives to collect data on the impact of the U.S. cuts to PEPFAR programming, there are growing numbers of examples about the severe consequences of the abrupt end to PEPFAR funding. For example, the Uganda Key Populations Consortium who lost 70% of its USAID funding, had closed 30 of the 54 drop-in centers around the country that dispense medications. In a survey of 275 organizations in 11 sub-Saharan countries in the first week of February 2025, all reported closed programs and services and patients turned away, and 70 organizations reported disruptions of HIV prevention, testing, and treatment services. 


While some of these programs have been turned back on, the long-term impacts are indisputable– some patients who were receiving treatment gave up and are no longer being tracked,  testing interruptions have resulted in missed cases, which leads to increased spread of infection. According to a media report from May 2025, despite waivers and restarted programs, HIV positive individuals in Uganda and Zimbabwe are not able to access medication due to the termination of PEPFAR program components that created an ecosystem for delivering services, leaving some clinics understaffed or not staffed at all and often without HIV medications. Additionally,  many of PEPFAR’s preventative services are now only reaching select groups, such as pregnant or breastfeeding women, which are only a portion of the at-risk populations that were able to access these treatments previously, and the majority of PEPFAR’s wraparound services that led to more effective prevention and treatment of HIV have been terminated, including mental health services that help individuals stay on their medication. In sum, PEPFAR was never a collection of standalone mechanisms--it was a complex, effective system that was designed in a way to deliver results. When programs are cut without regard for how they are connected and reinforcing of each other, critical linchpins are removed, stripping out foundational elements and amounting to far less functionality than what a surface-level percentage of number of programs operating conveys.


Fact: 79 percent of tuberculosis (TB) and 80 percent of malaria and tuberculosis  programs have been terminated. 


Secretary Rubio: 

“We are still doing vaccines. We are still doing vaccines for malaria, for example. We’re still doing tuberculosis. We’re still doing AIDS funding as well.”


Based on analysis from KFF of terminated U.S. foreign assistance programming, 79% of TB and 80% of malaria awards have been terminated. In Tanzania, a UN official noted that a “China Aid” sticker was placed over the USAID logo, indicating that China took over the malaria program funded by USAID that closed. On May 19, a day before Rubio testified on the Hill, an additional TB program was canceled in Indonesia, and a malaria program in Nigeria.

The U.S. has been a top donor to combat malaria globally through PMI and contributions to the Global Fund, and provided approximately a quarter of the international donor funding for TB. However, an internal USAID memo stated that if the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI)  was to be terminated completely, an additional 71,000-166,000 deaths could occur annually. And, based on reports from 30 countries with the highest TB burden, the reduction in funding is prompting the dismantling of essential services, including laying off of health workers, drug supply chains not functioning due to staff suspensions, lack of funds, and data failures, and lab service disruption.  As a result of an extremely limited “waiver” that was confusingly implemented and blocked many preventive measures that save lives, programs remained disrupted and challenges continue to persist with resuming programming and partners receiving payments that in some cases are necessary for retaining staff. 


For example, in Mozambique, the U.S. funded the lab networks and systems for transporting medical samples, and without this funding the diagnostic capacity is greatly reduced. In Cambodia, Pakistan, Nigeria, South Africa, and Eswatini, the largest program cuts were in case-finding, which allows for earlier diagnosis.


Fact: Children and Adults  Have Died as a Result of Cuts to USAID Programs


Secretary Rubio: 

“No children are dying on my watch.” 


“No one has died because of USAID. That’s a lie.” 


“The question about people dying around the world is an unfair one.” 


“That [a Boston University study predicting deaths] is just not true. That’s…a study based on if we cancel every one of these programs permanently, okay? … It assumes a near-total freeze in US foreign aid for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases… And even, then I think it’s exaggerated…”


There are well documented personal stories and research that proves Secretary Rubio is ignoring the deadly consequences of the foreign aid cuts. Researchers at the Boston School of Public Health created a tracker that shows the predicted  deaths as a result of USAID funding cuts based on data modeling. As of May 30, the model shows, 97,908 adults and 204,300 children have died because of the funding cuts. The developer of the tracker, Brooke Nichols, stated to the Washington Post that if Secretary Rubio’s claim that 85% of PEPFAR recipients are receiving services is accurate (which it grossly underestimates PEPFAR’s cuts), that the tracker’s numbers are accurate. The methodology draws on 2024 data from the USAID projects that were terminated and published mortality data to estimate the impact of the unavailability of treatments for HIV, TB, and malaria. While Secretary Rubio claimed that funds are flowing to PEPFAR programs, many implementers report that there are still barriers to receiving necessary funds. 


Anecdotal evidence of deaths resulting from USAID funding freezes and program terminations have also been reported in the media. These include children dying in South Sudan due to the inaccessibility of treatment for cholera as a result of closures of U.S. government funded clinics. In Uganda, clinics providing care for HIV-positive orphans have lost funding, resulting in the death of 28-year old Lydia Nabirye. In Nigeria, two facilities serving nearly 40,000 displaced people were closed, resulting in a child dying from an illness that could have been addressed in the facility setting.  Additionally, 7-year old Babagana Bukar Mohammed died in February in northeastern Nigeria due to sickle cell disease. His mother was not able to access lifesaving treatment for him as USAID’s funding for the local clinic was paused days before Babagana required medical care as part of the USAID foreign assistance review. The clinic, which sees up to 400 patients per day, was able to reopen in April.


Fact: Ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) supplies are rotting in warehouses as 343 million people face acute levels of food insecurity. 


Secretary Rubio: “There were no State Department delays” [in the production, transportation, and distribution of RUTF supplies]. 


Emergency food rations are rotting in four U.S. government warehouses, unable to be distributed as planned. In mid-May 2025, reports indicated that there were between 60,000 and 66,000 metric tons of food waiting for distribution, which could feed over a million people for three months.  Despite waivers for some “lifesaving” programs, food supplies remain in warehouses because of issues with contracts (they have been terminated, reactivated, and stalled), payments, and approvals, as well as the elimination of staff with the expertise to manage the distribution and shipping. 


The transportation of RUTF from warehouses in the U.S. to overseas requires the approval of DOGE staffer Jeremey Lewin. These approvals have been significantly delayed.  As of May 23, RUTF producer Mana Nutrition in Georgia is still waiting for its shipping contract to be signed so that it can ship 320,000 boxes, which would feed the equivalent number of children. Rhode Island-based producer Edesia received approval to ship 120,000 boxes only after Secretary Rubio testified. 


In addition, on May 21, 2025, Edesia and Mana were informed that their contracts would be extended to produce three to six months of RUTF, after having been told that the U.S. government would not be renewing their contracts after June 27. These types of abrupt shifts have significant impacts on the ability of American companies and farmers to produce the necessary supplies.  According to the World Food Programme, 343 million people are facing acute levels of food insecurity, and most are in Gaza, Sudan, South Sudan, Haiti, and Mali.


Fact: China is stepping in to take over USAID projects and learning from our successful development model.  


Secretary Rubio: “What they’re (China) is very good at is going into some country, making you a loan, and then holding that debt over your head. And that’s what they continue to do. And by the way, you have to hire a Chinese company to do it. So I don’t agree with this assessment, there’s no evidence whatsoever that China has either the capacity or the will to replace the U.S. in humanitarian assistance and food deliveries or in development assistance.”


While China may not have the same development footprint as the U.S. in terms of funds invested, since 2016 China has established itself as a bilateral development partner.  Additionally, China has become a leading provider of health assistance through its Health Silk Road cooperation strategies and agreements and announced an additional $500 million contribution to the WHO, allowing China to exert further influence in critical international organizations. 


As the U.S. withdraws from investing in development programming, early assessments see China as positioned to fill the vacuum, especially as China has already increased their resources for humanitarian and development programming including increased pledging of more than $50 billion in additional funding to countries in Africa in 2024, and solidifying its position as the second largest donor in the Pacific region. Since the 2025 cuts in USAID programming, China has stepped in to take advantage in the following countries:  


Fact: The administration has eliminated existing tools to move rapidly at the speed of relevance to respond to global events. 


Secretary Rubio: 

“To have the flexibility to be able to respond quickly is an important thing to consider…”


“Given global events that are happening, it [the America First Fund] provides us being nimble enough to deal with a contingency in a world that rapidly evolves, as opposed to having to go back and repurpose existing funds to do it. So that’s really the goal of the fund – to be able to move at the speed of relevance when it comes to global events and not have to wait for the next funding cycle to come across or work through some reprogramming process.”


“ We have to be able to act quickly in this regard [responding to Syria], which is one of the things we hope to do by being able to drive this down to the regional and local levels.”


Secretary Rubio spoke at length about the importance of nimble, flexible, and rapid responses to  world events. However, the President’s FY26 Budget proposes eliminating the two funds that are designed to do exactly that– the Transition Initiatives (TI) account and Complex Crisis Funds (CCF).  Both of these funds are designed with limited restrictions to respond swiftly, outside of pre-planned programs, to political opportunities and crises that arise unexpectedly.  With the strategic deployment of TI and CCF, USAID has been the first on the ground to shape political events, from supporting Ukrainians in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion to protecting Christian minorities in Iraq in areas liberated from ISIS to pushing back against former President Castillo’s attempts to dissolve Congress in Peru . 


Fact: The administration has terminated USAID programs in Syria that prevented an ISIS resurgence and stabilized the region. 


Secretary Rubio:

 “When Syria is unstable, the region becomes  unstable. And this has certainly been true after the Arab Spring led to the Assad- rebellion against Assad. And that really destabilized the tenure region. And then it turned Syria frankly into a playground for jihadist groups, including ISIS and others, that used it to operate and to destabilize their partners…If we engage them [the Transitional Authority], it may work out. It may not work out. If we did not engage them, it was guaranteed not to work out.”


“If … fragility is not addressed - there is going to be terror. There already is - I mean, ISIS is already growing there and potentially growing even more dangerous. If there is a civil war in Syria, you’re going to have an ungoverned space where multiple groups are going to break out and not just threaten the region, but ultimately, potentially the homeland.“


Prior to January 2025, USAID worked throughout Syria, primarily in areas liberated from ISIS, that addressed fragility and the drivers of instability. Programming included restoration of essential services such as water and sanitation infrastructure, health systems, and electricity in areas destroyed by the conflict, supporting local authorities so that ISIS could not take advantage of governance vacuums, enabling the successful repatriation of displaced families from refugee camps to prevent community tensions that lead to conflict and exploitation by extremist groups, and creating jobs and economic recovery that help prevent migration flows. The administration terminated these programs. 


A key example is the terminated funding for the work by the White Helmets in Syria for firefighting, search and rescue, and community resilience work, while a smaller contract with the U.S. Department of State has been retained. The White Helmets has provided life-saving emergency assistance since 2013, receiving a majority of their funding from USAID. Continued support during the current period of transition is critical to contributing to greater stability in the country. Following the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, the White Helmets had expanded operations from serving 5 million people in opposition-controlled areas in North Syria to 20 million people in nearly the entire country --  until its funding was terminated.


Fact: USAID’s Feed the Future Accelerator was a nimble, strategic tool to address food insecurity. The administration cut all of its funding. 


Secretary Rubio:

“Imagine if you’re an ambassador in a country that has a chronic food shortage, and you’re somehow able to provide them American ingenuity that allows them to produce more food at a lower cost using less land or less facility. That’s an extraordinary thing to offer as a part of our toolbox. Those are unique opportunities that probably exist in some places and not in others. And the ability to identify from the ground level and then to operationalize it is exactly the kind of nimble programming that we want to be able to do. Because once they have acquired the capacity to do it, it’s helped our companies to find a place where they can deploy it. It’s helped them to develop independence. And it creates good faith among the nations in the future.” 


Feed the Future invested over $1 billion annually to help high-need countries develop their agricultural sectors and break cycles of poverty and hunger, supported by American ingenuity and innovation.  The program worked with governments, donors, and the private sector to tackle hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. A  robust monitoring and evaluation system quantified  the impact of taxpayers' dollars on alleviating poverty and hunger in areas where Feed the Future worked. For example, in FY 2023 Feed the Future helped 32 million people around the world feed themselves and their families better for just .001% of the federal budget. However, the current administration’s cuts to Feed the Future investments have reduced programming from 20 focus countries to just one in Guatemala. This includes a reduction of 19 Feed the Future  U.S.  Innovation Labs to just 1, effectively ending efforts by U.S. universities under this program to address agricultural issues of importance to farmers and ranchers domestically and overseas. 


Fact: Lifesaving food and medicine programs for Sudan continued to be terminated as recently as May 19–the day before Secretary Rubio testified. 


Secretary Rubio: 

“All of the lifesaving food and medicine programs [in Sudan] have been turned on.” 


Sudan is facing the largest humanitarian crises in the world, with its population facing extreme food insecurity and acute medical needs as the  war continues. As a result of terminations in lifesaving programs, humanitarian aid is not reaching Sudan at the levels required to address the need. For example, emergency response rooms that provide food and medical assistance among other critical services have terminated staff, reduced hours, and stopped essential and lifesaving programs as programs were paused and/or terminated). A day before Secretary Rubio testified on the Hill, a half dozen life-saving programs to Sudan were terminated. These included funding for agricultural assistance for families in famine-affected areas (e.g. seeds and training), life saving medicine and medical services, nutrition support for starving children, Darfur emergency response (nutrition, shelter, safe drinking water, food assistance, cash for food), cash for local organizations supporting mutual aid efforts, and humanitarian coordination, protection support for aid organization staff, and security risk assessments. A recent estimate by analysts hosted by the Center for Global Development suggests that one particular health and nutrition project in Darfur was reaching more than 75,000 people with services, and would have prevented nearly 1,000 deaths among children under 5 in the coming months at only $2,600 per death prevented. This project  was cancelled and has not been reinstated. 


Fact: DOGE instituted unnecessary changes to the USAID payment system that stalled crucial payments to implementing partners.  


Secretary Rubio: 

“...on the payment system front where we faced a couple of weeks where we couldn’t get money moving through Treasury because of a variety of different reasons including changes to the technology…”


“And - you know, when I hear these stories about all the money’s - well, we’re moving money out of the building every single day, 20 million one day, 35 million the other. Money is moving out the door.  It’s going to somebody. Some of it is going to pay for work that was conducted in December, January and February before the freeze. So, we are paying back invoices on some of them. But most of it, a lot of it, is going towards ongoing programmatic activities that are approved and that we’ve either, through a waiver and/or approval process, are moving forward on.” 


The USAID payment system, Phoenix, was initially turned off by DOGE in early February 2025. When Phoenix was reactivated, DOGE limited who had authorization to make payments and imposed an inefficient process for making payments that interrupted Phoenix’s routing tracking functions. As USAID does not directly disburse funds, payments are made through the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for partners with letters of credit, and through the Department of Treasury for partners utilizing direct vouchers. For both of these payment types, DOGE has instituted additional manual review processes that have resulted in payment data no longer reliably syncing between HHS, Treasury, and USAID’s Phoenix system. This has led to disruptions in payments exacerbated by DOGE instituting additional reviews, delaying or canceling payments before funds are transferred, and breaking the loop back to Phoenix that record if payments are made. As a result, Phoenix is no longer able to provide accurate records of available funds. These delays are also costing the U.S. taxpayer additional costs as overdue payments incur interest and reported mistakes in payments made through DOGE’s new control over the payment systems to partner organizations. 


Fact: Separation of USAID and State Department Hiring Processes are Opaque, Inconsistent, and in Violation of RIF Regulations 


Secretary Rubio:  

"Employees are in staggered return status. Some of them frankly are because their kids are finishing school or some medical need or a pregnancy. And so we wanted to be accommodating. We've actually allowed some to come back as late as September or October, depending as far as the function is concerned.”


According to verbal accounts and testimonies submitted by staff in court proceedings, USAID staff who are part of the reduction in force will end their employment on either July 1 or September 2. Approval for staff overseas to defer their departure date has been described as “opaque” and “arbitrary.” While many USAID staff have reasonable justifications for a delayed separation date of September 2, these requests have been denied in the rush by the State Department to separate staff, or granted selectively on the basis of political considerations. 

The State Department has indicated they intend to hire personnel to manage foreign assistance at the State Department under new contracts. The communication to USAID staff about applying for available roles has not been clearly articulated nor aligned with the reduction in force regulations and competitive merit principles for recruitment. For example, positions have not been consistently advertised publicly nor to USAID staff, and in some cases, positions have not included position descriptions or have only been communicated verbally.  USAID staff are instructed to send expressions of interest to listserv addresses that do not accept external email messages. Some positions have been filled based on relationships with senior Department officials rather than a competitive recruitment process.

Fact: Terminated USAID programs were  preventing HIV transmission, outbreaks of diseases, and political violence and giving countries the tools to become less dependent on aid. 


Secretary Rubio: 

“...I don’t regret cutting $10 million for male circumcisions in Mozambique. I don’t know how that makes us stronger and more prosperous as a nation. … We spent $227,000 for Big Cats YouTube channel from USAID. We spent $14 million for social cohesion in Mali, whatever the hell that means.” 


“...I wanted to read you a few from the  - you know, the greatest hits - of some of these programs that we’ve identified …I don’t know what that is, but $20 million for fiscal federalism in Nepal, $1.5 million for voter confidence in Liberia, $14 million for social cohesion in Mali… the list goes on and on…There are programs that are not bed but are not necessarily core to our national interests. And then there are some that were just absurd and ridiculous.”


Male Voluntary Medical Circumcision in Mozambique: Voluntary male circumcision has been shown to be an effective measure in preventing the transmission of HIV. Between 2010-2023, in Mozambique there were 2.5 million VMMCs performed, and initial research findings suggest that among the males who had the procedure there was less than 2% infection with HIV.


Social Cohesion in Mali: Mali currently contends with the legacy of coups, conflict between the government and militia groups, ethnic divisions that fuel civil conflicts, and the continued growth of extremist groups and terrorist violence. These conflicts are both a threat to Mali’s future, but also a risk to U.S. interests. Addressing the social divisions in Mali that drive ethnic conflict and which are manipulated by extremist groups is critical to stabilizing the country and creating conditions for peace. The USAID Salam Project Mali supported  social cohesion– the extent to which people in a society feel that they share a common identity, feel a sense of solidarity, place trust in each other, and share values - to reduce the social and political divisions that drive social divisions and resulting violence. 


Big Cats YouTube Channel: Protecting biodiversity and wildlife has won bipartisan support in the U.S., such as the  2024 passage of the U.S. Foundation for International Conservation Act, which had over 60 Republican cosponsors. USAID in partnership with International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) launched a livestream YouTube channel to promote the extensive conservation work led by international organizations, governments, communities, and the private sector. Through this publicly accessible format for pennies on the dollar, USAID highlighted for the public.  USAID invested $319.5 million to conserve biodiversity, reduce wildlife trafficking and other nature crimes, and support livelihoods for those who  depend on biodiversity and healthy ecosystems for food, jobs, and security.


Fiscal Federalism in Nepal: USAID’s Public Financial Management Activity strengthened Nepal’s public financial management at the federal, provincial, and local levels of government, which ultimately helps a country to become less aid dependent.  With a constitutional mandate and the 2017 elections that enabled the formation of three levels of government in Nepal, fiscal federalism faced many barriers including the continued concentration of decision-making regarding fiscal resources at the federal level. Without effective systems to flow fiscal resources to subnational governments, provincial and local governance was weakened along with increased public discontent with federalism. 


Voter Confidence in Liberia: Liberia is a close partner of the United States. Notably, Liberia regularly has the highest rate of alignment with the United States on U.N. votes, among African countries. The PRC is increasingly interested in expanding its influence in West Africa and in 2024, President Xi Jinping met with LIberian President Joseph Nyumah to elevate the relationship to a strategic partnership. Preventing electoral violence in Liberia is a cost-effective way for the United States to support a partner that has a long-history of conflict.  The USAID  initiative was designed to promote transparency and public trust in elections in Liberia, including to enhance voter confidence in the electoral processes and results and to mitigate electoral violence and tension, through evidence-based, responsive election observation reporting to the public. The project was in alignment with Liberia’s Elections Coordination Committee’s mission, which works to ensure transparent, accountable, credible, and sustainable democratic processes in Liberia. 
This archive was generated by a fusion of Pipermail (Mailman edition) and MHonArc.