Overview
- The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a U.S. foreign aid agency founded in 2004, is being shuttered as part of the Trump administration’s cost-cutting measures led by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
- All MCC programs will be terminated, with limited wind-down periods granted for select projects in countries like Ivory Coast, Nepal, and Senegal.
- The agency’s workforce will be reduced to only the acting CEO, with employees offered buyouts, early retirement, or administrative leave paid through September 30.
- MCC, which has invested $17 billion in developing countries and countered China’s Belt and Road Initiative, will cease funding infrastructure projects that promote economic growth and governance reforms.
- The closure follows DOGE’s previous dismantling of USAID and other foreign aid bodies, sparking criticism over ceding geopolitical influence to China.