USASpending.gov provides a list of contracts and grants that USAID has issued since January 20th. It is a very short and depressing list. Just as worrying, it is still not accompanied by any evidence of an uptick in contracting activity at the Department of State. That’s evidence of a growing crisis for the lifesaving assistance that the administration has committed to continue delivering.
As of June 4th, USAspending.gov lists just 72 new awards issued by USAID since the inauguration, involving total obligations worth a little less than $9 million. A couple of contracts support ocean transportation of ready-to-use therapeutic food, there is an award for a human rights program in Egypt, and $275,000 was obligated to support work on a customs clearance process for delivery of food aid to Gaza through Jordan. But most of the entries are very small contracts for things like parts, repair, and IT services, alongside awards related to closing down offices. There’s a $41,142 contract for the removal and reinstallation of the USAID memorial wall, contracts for hotel bills as staff prepare to exit, and support for “emotional recovery and career transition” services. For five months, then, USAID hasn’t issued a single major new contract for foreign assistance.
What about the State Department? Without congressional authorization, you could argue it shouldn’t yet fill much of the foreign assistance contracting gap created by the turmoil at USAID. But it isn’t clear that State is taking over contracting even for the parts of development assistance where it already has authority to do so. Not least, it is the funding agency for most PEPFAR spending, much of which has been historically managed by CDC and USAID. But with USAID’s shuttering, we should be seeing new contracts for delivery of PEPFAR services appearing under State. That isn’t happening.
While State has issued a lot of awards since the inauguration—around 8,000—most are very small. The total obligated amount under those new awards is less than $900 million, compared to $1.9 billion for the same time period last year. Looking at the few big awards—ones that have obligated more than $10 million—none appear to be about delivering foreign assistance, let alone services connected with HIV treatment and prevention. The list includes IT support, a public awareness campaign, guard services, providing services to the 2025 World Expo in Osaka, renovating embassies in Switzerland and Argentina, support for Iraqi demobilization and Afghan relocation efforts, support to the Sanai peacekeeping mission and backing “assisted voluntary return” of migrants. (Looking at contracts that are large on the basis of their potential value rather than obligated value to date does not change that picture).
Indeed, it appears even existing awards aren’t being properly funded. As of the end of May, two thirds of the way through the fiscal year, State had obligated only $2.5 billion of the $21 billion in budgetary resources it had been provided for global health programs.
By June 4th, USAID contracts that the administration had decided to preserve during the DOGE exercise, contracts worth more than $3 billion in obligations, had reached their contract end-date. Perhaps some were extended and others did not need to be re-issued. But it is a sign of a growing problem: even assuming a foreign assistance recissions package passes Congress, the administration has an urgent task to rebuild the capacity to issue awards to use the finance that remains, especially given State is meant to be taking over all USAID award management by July 1st. The challenges, as laid out in a recent USAID Inspector General report, are considerable:
The billions of dollars USAID invested in humanitarian and development assistance required specific training and certification for officials ... Niche grant and contracting expertise was essential to administer these complex awards; including to international organizations, foreign recipients, and small, local implementers unfamiliar with U.S. regulations and agency-specific award provisions. Ensuring that the Department of State has sufficient resources and skill sets necessary to conduct proper award management is vital to identifying noncompliance, poor performance, financial irregularities, and criminal activity involving taxpayer funds. ….By one estimate, some 70% of USAID staff are highly specialized, including medical doctors, water and sanitation specialists, and engineers, to name just a few areas. State hiring actions to ensure that this expertise is in place for administering complex foreign assistance programs will take time and resources…
It is clear that considerable and extremely rapid progress is required to rebuild institutional capacity to deliver foreign assistance. Otherwise, the administration’s stated commitment to preserving lifesaving assistance will look ever more unbelievable.
