Destruction of hundreds of tonnes of expired foreign food aid a symbol of US cuts
Despite warnings from lawmakers, nearly 500 tonnes of vital aid expired and were destroyed as Congress codified billions in spending reductions
The United States’ destruction of a warehouse worth of emergency food that had spoiled has drawn outrage, but lawmakers and aid workers have said it was only one effect of President Donald Trump’s abrupt slashing of foreign assistance.
The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives early on Friday approved nearly US$9 billion in cuts to foreign aid as well as public broadcasting, formalising a radical overhaul of spending that Trump first imposed with strokes of his pen on taking office nearly six months ago.
US officials confirmed that nearly 500 tonnes of high-nutrition biscuits, meant to keep alive malnourished children in Afghanistan and Pakistan, were incinerated after they passed their expiration date in a warehouse in Dubai.
Lawmakers of the rival Democratic Party said they had warned about the expiring food since March. Senator Tim Kaine said that the inaction in feeding children “really exposes the soul” of the Trump administration.
Michael Rigas, the deputy secretary of state for management, acknowledged to Kaine that blame lay with the shuttering of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which was merged into the State Department after drastic cuts.