Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) expressed skepticism about the Trump administration’s efforts to fold the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) into the State Department, saying it is central to combatting China’s growing influence.
“I have felt for a long time that USAID is, is our way to combat the Belt and Road Initiative, which is China’s effort to really gain influence around the world, including Africa and South America in the Western Hemisphere,” Wicker told reporters Tuesday, in comments highlighted by Mediaite.
“So we need an aid program to match the Chinese effort, but it needs to be done in a way that the policymakers of the United States have decided ought to be done. And so I’m eager to see an audit and see the sort of mismanagement that the secretary of State has told us about today.”
Asked by a reporter about Congress not being notified of changes at USAID, he said he needed more time to ask questions to gain a clear understanding of President Trump and Elon Musk’s vision.
“Well, things are moving very fast in these the first two weeks of the administration. It is something that … that I had not been notified about. But again, this is just foreign relations and appropriations,” he said. “And I would not necessarily have been notified. But we check again. Things are happening fast. And we’re we’re going to find out a lot more. There’s good communication.”
“And I would not necessarily have been notified. But we check again. Things are happening fast. And we’re we’re going to find out a lot more. There’s good communication.”
Congressional Research Service has joined many Democrats in saying Trump does not have the authority to close the agency, while others remain concerned about misappropriated funds supporting initiatives across the globe.
“They have basically evolved into an agency that believes that they’re not even a U.S. government agency, that they are out — they’re a global charity, that they take the taxpayer money, and they spend it as a global charity irrespective of whether it is in the national interest or not in the national interest,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview with Fox News.
“If there’s massive fraud, if the funds aren’t being directed where the Congress has appropriated and the president signed, we need to know about that,” Wicker told the reporters.
It’s unclear how congressional committees plan to move forward amid the swift efforts to restructure USAID.
