US President Donald Trump has signed a law that reduces government spending on foreign aid and funding for public broadcasters NPR and PBS by a total of 9 billion USD. This is stated in a statement published by the White House press service.
This means that Trump has signed a bill previously approved by the US Congress containing provisions for “canceling certain government spending“. According to the document, 7.9 billion USD allocated to the State Department for the activities of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), as well as 1.1 billion USD sent to the American Corporation for Public Broadcasting, will return to the federal budget. This amount almost completely corresponds to the two-year budget of the corporation through which NPR and PBS receive state funding.
On June 4, Trump sent a request to Congress to cancel state spending on foreign aid and funding for NPR and PBS. NPR unites 797 American radio stations, PBS - 354 non-commercial television stations in 50 states.
On April 14, The Washington Post reported that the White House wants to cut funding for the State Department by almost half. The authorities intend to reduce the amount of funds allocated to international organizations by almost 90%. In particular, they plan to stop funding for peacekeeping missions, the UN, NATO and 20 other international institutions.
On February 3, the Trump administration effectively shut down USAID, which was used to implement US foreign policy and was a tool for influencing other countries. On March 10, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was appointed interim head of USAID, announced that the government had terminated 83% of the agency's programs following an audit.