State Department Cancels Most USAID Contracts

The secretary of state announced the move.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrives at the 61st Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, on Feb. 15, 2025. Sean Gallup/Getty Images

The U.S. State Department has canceled some 83 percent of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) contracts, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on March 10.

“The 5200 contracts that are now cancelled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States,” Rubio said on the social media platform X.

The remaining contracts, numbering about 1,000, will be kept.

President Donald Trump, after starting his second term, froze U.S. assistance to foreign nations, including aid administered by USAID. He said that “it is the policy of United States that no further United States foreign assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States.”

Rubio then undertook a review of the contracts to make sure they promoted U.S. interests.

Administration officials said in February that Rubio, the acting USAID administrator, had made final decisions on all USAID obligations and terminated nearly 5,800 contracts. More than 500 awards were being retained, officials said at the time.

A State Department spokesperson indicated to reporters on March 6 that the agency will release a list of all the contracts being terminated.

“Those are going to be times when I have to come back to you, and this is one of those times. But it’s a good question, and yes, I’d like to get that for you,” spokesperson Tammy Bruce said.

The agency did not respond on Monday to a request for the list by press deadline.

Under Trump’s direction, his adviser Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have been working with agencies to identify what officials describe as waste in a bid to cut the size of the government and improve efficiency.

Rubio on Monday thanked both DOGE and State Department staffers, who he said “worked very long hours to achieve this overdue and historic reform.”

Musk responded: “Tough, but necessary.”

The development came after reports said Rubio clashed with Musk during a recent Cabinet meeting. Trump denied the reports, describing them as fake news. He said Musk and Rubio have a great relationship.

It also followed a federal judge setting a deadline of the evening of March 10 to pay nearly $2 billion it owes USAID grant recipients. The judge found the freeze unconstitutional and is requiring the administration to pay the contractors.