Current and former officials at the State Department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) say staffers were invited to submit requests to exempt certain programmes from the foreign aid freeze, which President Donald Trump imposed on January 20 and the State Department detailed how to execute on January 24.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio has ordered an immediate halt to work on virtually all existing foreign aid programmes pending a review into whether they are consistent with President Donald Trump’s policies, according to an internal cable seen by the Financial Times.

Exemptions include humanitarian assistance such as core life-saving medicine, medical services, food, shelter and subsistence assistance

Health and humanitarian groups around the world were still uncertain on January 29 if and how they could resume work after the United States issued a waiver for “life-saving” assistance in President Donald Trump’s freeze on U.S. foreign aid.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced exemptions in the freeze on foreign assistance, continuing funding for humanitarian items like shelter and medicine. President Trump had ordered a 90-day pause on assistance.

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Trump administration changes have upended the US agency charged with providing humanitarian aid to countries overseas, with dozens of senior officials put on leave, thousands of contractors laid off,

U.S. diplomats have neglected the Western Hemisphere for too long.

When Marco Rubio arrives in Latin America this weekend on his first foreign trip as Donald Trump's secretary of state, he'll find a region reeling from the new administration's shock-and-awe approach to diplomacy.

Conflict tracking in Myanmar. Investigations of Chinese human trafficking. Refugee healthcare in Thailand. Strengthening independent media in Mongolia. Environmental conservation in Tibet. These are just a few of the Asia-focused programmes operating with US government funds that risk permanent closure after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week suspending all foreign aid,

In a follow-up memo after an outcry from aid groups, Rubio clarified that other “humanitarian assistance” besides food would also be exempt during the review period. Humanitarian assistance was defined as “core life-saving medicine, medical services, food, shelter and subsistence assistance”.

Those who support the freeze of US aid programmes, worth around $70bn per year, say they are vastly bloated, with Washington carrying too much of the weight compared to other Western nations. And they argue the government sends far too much money abroad that would be better spent on Americans at home.