Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) blocked a resolution in the Senate that supported the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as the agency undergoes turmoil via the Trump administration.
Democratic Sen. Chris Coons (Del.) asked unanimous consent that the Senate agree to a resolution that affirmed USAID’s role in protecting the United States’ national security. Coons has more than 40 Democrats backing him on the bill.
Risch, the chair of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, objected to the measure and noted hard choices must be made to reduce the national debt.
“The idea of merging USAID and the State Department has been floated by nearly every administration since USAID was established by Congress in 1998,” Risch said on the Senate floor. “I’m supportive of the Trump Administration’s efforts to reform and restructure the agency in a way that better serves U.S. national security interests.”
Risch said he was supportive of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s plan to integrate the agency under the State Department and said he plans to work alongside him in consultation during the process.
In response, Coons highlighted the importance of the agency for the nation’s global standing and the aid it provides to various communities internationally. He also highlighted a point he and other lawmakers have presented over the last several days, which is that Congress has already appropriated funds for USAID, and it is now President Trump’s role to carry out that function.
“Why should we bother coming to an agreement on appropriations here in the Senate, pass a law, send it to the president, he signs in, and then in the next Congress and the next president, they can shut it down and claw it back?” Coons questioned.
The battle comes as officials from Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) have essentially shut down USAID. Several lawmakers have sounded the alarm about Musk’s influence over the federal government in the last several days.
Coons said he is hopeful that there would be a bipartisan agreement on continuing to support USAID investment. Still, it’s unclear if that would happen because “the unelected leader of DOGE,” Musk, has called for the agency to be shuttered entirely.
“My hope is that Secretary Rubio’s comments today on television about sustaining many of the critical functions of aid will win out, but I’m not confidence because it’s unclear to me who’s really driving this initiative,” Coons concluded.
