Overview

• Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Friday that budget director Russ Vought will oversee USAID’s shutdown, saying core programs have already shifted to the State Department.
• Vought, a fiscal hawk linked to Project 2025, adds the role to his duties running OMB and serving as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
• OMB on Friday moved to cancel roughly $5 billion in previously approved foreign aid through a “pocket rescission,” a tactic congressional watchdogs and lawmakers have criticized as unlawful.
• Key appropriators warned the maneuver could complicate year-end funding talks, as legal and political fights over control of appropriated aid intensify.
• USAID has been folded into State with thousands of staff fired or on leave, while lawsuits from employees and NGOs proceed and supporters warn of humanitarian fallout.